


Private Conflict

by Yel_Ashaya



Series: All's Fair in Love and War [1]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Adventure, Android, Duty, F/M, Love, Prejudice, Racism, Romance, interplanetary war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 03:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 54,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14011326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yel_Ashaya/pseuds/Yel_Ashaya
Summary: Being radiation-retardant, Data and Ensign Monroe are ordered to rescue Picard when he goes missing before a peace conference. Data and Monroe get close, but when the mission goes awry, can they help each other in an alien jail cell, or will Monroe's future lie with the enigmatic prison overseer? Dr Crusher must also debunk a disease on the Enterprise; is it a clue? The first part in the 'All's Fair in Love and War' series.(Originally published on fanfiction.net, where I'm called 'Yel Ashaya')Disclaimer: Star Trek, except my OCs, is not mine (sadly)





	1. The Mission

Captain Jean-Luc Picard sighed. It was both a sigh of relief and of slight annoyance. He had barely even managed to get half way into his book when the interruption came. He was fed up with the interruptions he had had lately. Only yesterday, commander Riker had visited his ready room with a question on his mind regarding whether or not the captain thought Deanna Troi would like to be more than friends. Furthermore, commander Data, the ship's android second officer, had come to the captain asking for advice regarding humour and, even more peculiar, romance. Feeling rather uncomfortable with talking about matters of love with Data, Picard finally succeeded in managing to get the ship's counsellor to talk to the troubled android.

As he finished reading the sentence which he was currently on, he carefully slipped the thick bookmark into the book and then shut it. Picard frowned as he pressed the button on his personal computer, which would open the comm channel on his end.

He studied the expression of the man who was sat in front of him, in the screen. He was an elderly man, one who had the scrawny, tired looking appearance of a man who had quite obviously spent a little too much time in the sun, with no protection. However, he was pale, very pale. He wore a blood red uniform, with a sparkly collar; symbolic of a Starfleet Admiral.

The elderly man on the computer monitor began to talk. His tone of voice was cold and sullen. Picard could tell, before he had even began to speak, that the news he was going to receive would not be of the cheerful kind. "Captain Picard," the man said sternly, "As I'm sure you know, your ship is the only federation vessel within fifty light-years of the twin planets Hypnos and Thanatos."

Captain Picard sighed, deep in thought. "Ah… Greek mythology," he mused quietly. He could remember quite clearly of the twins from ancient Earth mythology who were the sons of the god Erebos and the goddess Nyx.

The man ignored the captain's odd observation and then proceeded to continue with what he was saying, "For some time, Hypnos and Thanatos have been engaged in a bitter conflict."

"Yes, yes," Picard said, nodding, as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I've heard about that."

"However," the man on the monitor continued," it is not so much a war of the physical and military kind. It is more a war of the psychological type."

Picard frowned at the man's explanation. He was unsure of what he meant. "What do you mean by that?" Picard asked, a little confused.

"The segregation of these two peoples is almost immeasurable. They are prejudiced and highly xenophobic. Your vessel has been delegated by Starfleet Command to act as intermediary between these two conflicting races," the man explained as best he could.

"I see," Picard said, still stroking his chin with a still rather perplexed and unconvinced expression on his face.

"There is a peace conference taking place on the moon of the first planet from the parent star. It is neutral and uninhabited. That is why Starfleet has chosen this satellite in particular to host the highly important conference. You will be expected to arrive at the moon, Charon, in five days."

Captain Picard sighed once again. It was beginning to look like he would never get to finish his book anytime soon. He nodded in agreement at response to the admiral's words. He was going to smile but, to be perfectly honest, he didn't really feel like doing so, so he didn't.

The man on the screen nodded as well, and then said quietly and sternly, "Starfleet out." The screen then subsequently went black and Picard pushed the computer monitor away from him, further to the back of the desk. He then picked up his book and managed to finish reading his chapter. Nothing much more had actually happened in his book, which made him even more frustrated than he already was. Maybe, he decided, it was because of the fact that he had read the book many times and now, he was reading it for at least a fifth time, and if not, more.


	2. Concern for the Captain

The Enterprise's captain studied the face of his crewmembers as they sat in a circle around the large table of the main conference room. Some of the faces wore expressions of dread, some of excitement and one person had the expression of neutrality. It seemed as though nothing was bothering him at the moment and that nothing could bother him in the future. It was, of course, lieutenant commander Data, as Picard had to remind himself. "I presume you all know why you've been called here," the captain said as he looked at every individual briefly who was sat around the table in front of him.

They all nodded and commander Riker was the first of them to actually speak. "Sir, if I may…" he waited for captain Picard's approval and when it came in the firm of a slight but still quite distinguishable nod, he continued, "Why are we getting involved in this thing in the first place?"

Picard formed a steeple with his fingers and placed them firmly on the desk in front of him, thinking deeply for a short moment. "What do you mean, Number One?" He asked his first officer.

"Well," Riker carried on, "These two planets, what were they called again? Apollo and Artemis or something?"

Picard sighed and replied to the commander, correcting his ridiculous but quite obviously purposeful mistake, "No, commander. They are called Hypnos and Thanatos."

"Ah, well… I was half right," Riker said, defending his words. "They're not Federation planets are they?" He asked, his eyes were full of uncertainty and scepticism.

The captain looked over at the golden skinned android, who was sat in the chair next to Riker. He could tell that Data wanted to say something, so he prompted him, "Mr Data?"

The android nodded, and then placed his hands firmly on the table. "Sir," he said, looking over at commander Riker carefully, "the Federation charter states that any planet which has traded with or is currently trading with a Federation member planet, must be allowed aid from Federation sources." Data displayed a very brief and very small smile, obviously quite satisfied with his explanation, which was actually word for word from the Federation charter.

Riker nodded and said, "I see."

"But, who have these planets traded with?" It was Geordi La Forge who had asked the question. It seemed to be aimed at no one in particular.

Data paused for a moment and then attempted to answer his friend's question. "Thanatos has been known to Trade with Vulcan and Hypnos used to trade with the Trill home world and, centuries ago, sources suggest that it also traded with the Cardassian Empire."

Counsellor Deanna Troi nodded and then added to Data's explanation, "I remember mother once telling me that Thanatos traded with Betazed."

Data nodded in agreement with Troi's addition. "That is correct, counsellor."

Captain Picard then endeavoured to continue on with the meeting. "Starfleet Command has told me that we are to act as intermediary between the people of Thanatos and the People of Hypnos. I will select an away team, closer to the time of the conference, to beam down with me." He looked at the faces of the people at the table with him. They all appeared as though the understood what they said, except for one officer, Reginald Barclay. But, he usually looked confused, so Picard ignored that and said firmly, "Dismissed."

Commander Riker waited for everyone to leave the conference room and then walked over to the captain. "Captain?"

"Yes, Number One?" Picard looked up at his first officer, expectantly.

"I can't say that I'm all that convinced about what we're doing here," Riker said as he knitted his brows ever so slightly.

Picard walked over to the large, floor to ceiling window and stared out at the stars, almost dreamily. "Whatever do you mean, Number One?" He asked.

"I'm not sure whether we should be getting involved. I mean, it's their problem to sort out, isn't it?" He asked the captain.

"I understand, Will," the captain said reassuringly, dropping to a more informal and casual tone of voice this time. "But, Starfleet have told us what to do, and, at the end of the day, we have to obey their orders."

"I know that, sir," Riker said loudly and defiantly, before lowering his tone considerably.

Picard attempted a smile and then announced, "It will be fine, Number One."

Riker tried to smile back, but he wasn't really all that convinced. He left the room deep in thought and consideration.


	3. Bitter Disputes

The bridge crew of the starship Enterprise waited eagerly for the main view screen to come on. Only a few moments ago, Lieutenant Worf had announced that the presidents of the planets Thanatos and Hypnos wished to speak to them. The screen flickered ever so slightly, and then two figures appeared on the screen. The figure on the left hand side was a man, who appeared to be no older than thirty years of age. He had short blonde hair and his skin was pure green in colour it. The man on the other side, however, had skin which seemed to be of a more white type hue and he appeared to be much older, maybe middle aged.

"This is Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Federation starship, the USS Enterprise." He paused and then continued, "To whom have I the pleasure of speaking?"

The blonde man was the first to talk. "Greetings," he said in a polite tone of voice, "I am Myklos, president of Thanatos.

Captain Picard walked up closer to the view screen and nodded in acknowledgment of the man's presence.

Then, it was the other man's turn to talk. "I am Jevail, president of the planet Hypnos."

"I presume you are aware of our predicament," the younger alien man said. His eyes were bright blue and his skin was so smooth that it could easily have been made of porcelain.

The president of Hypnos glared, annoyed, at the younger man. "It is not a predicament," he said firmly. "It is war!" He shouted this time.

"Which your people have started!" The man with the blonde hair argued.

Just as president Jevail was about to dispute Myklos' claim, Picard held up his hands, displaying authority and trying to maintain some sort of order. "I have been told that my crew is to act is intermediary between your two people."

They both nodded solemnly, trying not to look at each other properly.

"Now," Picard continued, "Whatever your quarrel is, I am sure it can be rectified one way or another. Tomorrow, an away team lead by myself will beam down to Charon to attend the peace conference."

The younger man looked at the middle aged one, who interjected, "Captain, with all due respect, we both have decided that we wish for only you to attend the conference."

Riker frowned and walked up to his captain. "I'm not sure this is a good idea," he said in a low register and as quietly as he could.

"I understand your concern, Number One," Picard replied in normal volume. He then turned to face the view screen again and replied firmly, "I accept you terms. I will arrive shortly."

"Thank you, captain," the mysterious alien men said.

Once the screen had gone black, Riker looked over at Deanna, who bore a very thoughtful and inquisitive expression on her face. He asked her, being quite interested by how she was acting, "Deanna?"

She looked up at him, "Yes?"

"You ok there?" He asked.

"I'm fine," she reassured him, smiling.

He frowned. He had known her far too long to just leave it there. "You looked a little… preoccupied."

"Oh, did I?" Deanna asked the rhetorical question. "I didn't mean to. I was just thinking."

"Did you sense something?" He asked her, reproachfully.

She smiled and shook her head, "No, nothing that we should be alarmed about. I was just thinking about how handsome Myklos is."

Riker said no more but rolled his eyes and leant back in the first officer's comfortable chair.


	4. A Problematic Departure

Captain Picard was stood in the main shuttle bay of the starship Enterprise. He wasn't nervous, for he had no need to be. At least, he wasn't particularly nervous about going to the moon to attend the peace conference; he knew that shuttlecrafts were perfectly safe. They were even safer than transporting down. However, he was nervous about actually going to the conference itself. He had never really done anything quite like it. The closest he had gotten, so he believed, was when he had to try and convince the Q Continuum why one of their troublesome people should be allowed to have his powers back. That had happened only a year ago, but still, Picard wasn't entirely sure whether or not he really was doing the right thing. Commander Riker's words of warning may have, at first, seemed to him to just be down to nerves. But, now, Picard was starting to see the wisdom in what his first officer had said.

Lieutenant commander Data frowned at the uncertain expression of his captain. "Sir?" He enquired carefully.

Picard blinked and then registered the android's voice. "Oh… yes, commander? What is it?"

Data's head twitched a little, an involuntary spasm, and then he replied, "Are you ready to board the shuttlecraft?"

"Yes… yes," Picard said quietly and a bit preoccupied.

Riker raised an eyebrow at the captain's odd tone of voice, "Captain? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Number One. Just a little nervous, that's all."

Riker nodded, feeling reassured. He knew that Deanna would be able to sense if Picard was really having second thoughts and he knew that she would probably tell him if that were the case. Thankfully though, it wasn't.

Picard stepped into the shuttlecraft and bade his officers that were present farewell. Once in the craft, he walked the short distance to the control seat and then sat down and prepared to ready the vehicle for take-off.

Riker gave the order for everyone to leave the shuttle bay, and they all did. They didn't want to be sucked out into the unforgiving vacuum of space when the cargo bay doors opened. Once he was sure that everyone had left the shuttle bay, including himself, Riker gave the order for the captain to begin departure procedures.

As he looked out at the black nothingness which was space, lieutenant commander Data thought quietly and deeply to himself. He was a curious person, by nature, but he was also quite a reserved and conscientious person too. For a split second, he found his thoughts to be about his brother. It had been over three and a half years since he and his brother, Lore, had met for the first time. Data had, without even a moment's thought, ejected Lore into the vacuum of space. He always wondered, whenever he happened to look out of the windows, which was quite often, what had really happened to his brother. All of those thoughts were processed in under 0.87 seconds, but it seemed like an eternity for the android. Geordi noticed Data's strange expression. "You all right, Data?"

The android looked up, to see Geordi's uncertain face. "Yes, Geordi, I am fine."

"Now," Picard said tentatively through the microphone in the shuttlecraft, "I'm not sure how long this is going to take. My best guess is that it shouldn't be more than a few hours."

Riker noted the captain's voice, "Understood, sir. Enterprise out."

Inside the shuttlecraft, Picard found it to be rather lonely. He had never really found himself to be particularly partial to the company of another, yet he felt a little odd. He had always, for the past four years, when he had been serving on board Starfleet's flagship, the USS Enterprise, been surrounded by the crew and civilians of the ship; the total of which was more or less one and a half thousand people of many different and unique alien species.

He wandered around the shuttlecraft, looking at various things. There was nothing that was even of the slightest bit of interest to him, nonetheless, he was just trying to pass the time. The shuttlecraft could not go very fast by twenty fourth century standards. It had a top speed of only warp two. The destination, which was the small, rocky moon Charon, was more than fifty light years away. It would, therefore, take little less than a week to get there.

Picard smacked his lips and sighed. He was thirsty. In fact, he had been thirsty for quite some time, but, because of all of his worries and apprehension about attending this peace conference, he had actually managed to forget to drink. He decided that now was the correct time for him to satisfy his dehydrated mouth. He switched on the food replicator and said, "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."

Less than what seemed to be only a few miniscule seconds, fragrant earl grey tea, served in a spotless snowy tea cup, complete with saucer, appeared on top of the dispenser tray. Picard bent over and took the warm beverage into his hands, savouring every drop. Of course, he knew that he could always have more, as the replicators had a basically inexhaustible supply, but he felt as though this particular cup was special and he wanted to make sure it lasted.

"Computer," he began to talk loudly as he held his tea steadily in one hand, "How long until we reach Charon?"

The shuttlecraft's computer systems buzzed and chirped for a short while, before the bland, emotionless and rather non-descript female voice of the computer answered him, "Four days, six hours, seven minutes and forty three point—"

Picard cut the computer's exact answer off short, "Thank you." He leant back in his chair and sighed loudly. It was certainly going to be a long journey. He wished that he had brought an away team with him. He didn't much favour the idea of having to spend the best part of a week cooped up inside a not so state of the art shuttlecraft with no one to talk to. Even lieutenant commander Data's odd company would have been welcomed by the captain at this point. He was actually starting to wonder if he should have sent Data off on this mission in the first place. But, then again, the Thanatosians and Hypnites would realise sooner or later that the peculiar, yet highly intelligent android was not the Enterprise's captain.

His eyes were just about to close, so he could eventually take part in a long awaited sleep when something caught his attention. The shuttlecraft shook rather too violently for his liking and he jumped out of his seat. Picard looked out of one of the many windows of the shuttlecraft and gazed both in despair and wonder. The twin planets, Hypnos and Thanatos, were very beautiful worlds, or they would have been if it weren't for all the toxic clouds of gases and poisons which were actually visible from space. Picard wasn't even in orbit, or even that close to the two planetary bodies, yet he was still able to see the devastating effect that this conflict was having on these two peoples. The gas clouds were mouldy yellow in colour. They were quite obviously polluting not only the air but also people's minds. Picard sighed at the sight he saw. It really was quite pitiful indeed.

All of a sudden, a bright light became visible on his arm. To Picard's surprise and slight worry, the light began to show all over his body. He looked into the window and saw the faint outline of his reflection. He saw that even his face was glowing in a strange sort of bluish emerald tinge. Slowly, his surroundings; the shuttlecraft interior, the planets in the distance; became blurred and almost incomprehensible. He closed his eyes for just one fraction of a seemingly everlasting second and when he opened them again, all he could see was nothing. It was completely and utterly pitch black. The air was cold and he couldn't help but cough. His eyes began to sting and he instinctively rubbed them furiously, which almost staunched the pain.


	5. Too Young to Fight

The young soldier shook his head sorrowfully and rapidly. He looked up at his comrade and he felt a tear fall from his eye. He reached up to try and catch it, but his hands were so caked in blood and in dirt, that he resisted and let the salty tear fall to the ground. The other soldier reached out his hand and placed it firmly on his friend's shoulder. He said calmly, "We must go."

The younger officer sniffed and replied quietly, "We cannot. We can't leave him." He looked down at the battered body of the other soldier.

"Aeson is dead, Kiros," the soldier said. "We have to go."

"He is my brother!" Kiros shouted back angrily. "I will not listen to you, Attica."

"You must," Attica replied in as firm and as authoritative voice as he could manage to muster. "We have to leave. Aeson is dead, Kiros. We have to go."

"Why?" Kiros demanded. "Why?"

"We will die if we stay here any longer. Can you not hear the bombs? Can you not hear the cannons getting closer and closer with every shot that is fired?" Attica said bravely.

Kiros sniffed again and sighed quietly. "I will go." He took one last look at his fallen brother and made an attempt at composing himself. It wasn't that good and it wouldn't last long, but it would have to do.

"Good," Attica said, trying to attempt some sort of a smile.

"You are elder," Kiras pointed out as he and Attica trekked carefully across the barren land of Thanatos, "so, therefore, you must be wiser."

Attica smiled at him. "That is what you would think."

Kiras jumped over what looked like a mine and quickly caught up with Attica. "Why are we and the Hypnites at war?"

"I do not know why," Attica said sadly. The confusion was etched into his face.

"You don't? Then, who does?" Kiras asked curiously.

Attica reached up and shoved a stray strand of blonde hair out of his face. "I don't know the answer to that, unfortunately," he admitted.

"Attica!" Kiras said quietly and warningly. Attica, hearing the distress and worry in the younger officer's voice stood still where he was and whispered back, "Kiras? What is it? What's wrong?"

"I think… I think we're being watched."

The elder officer frowned, unconvinced. "Why do you say that?"

"I heard something move in that bush over there," Kiras said as he pointed over to a shrub towards the near west, which looked as though it had quite obviously seen better days.

Attica nodded in agreement with Kiras and then proceeded to walk over to where the bush was, as quietly as he found possible. He reached down and picked up a spindly, moss covered stick and began to poke the bush with it. Nothing happened at once, but then, all of a sudden, something in the bush moved. A few dozen metres away in the distance, Kiras was just about getting ready to shut his eyes tightly when a small cat ran out of the shrubbery.

"Phew!" Attica said, plainly relieved. "Thank god it wasn't the enemy!"

Kiras smiled, also thankful that there was nothing worse than a mangy, old, ginger and grey cat in that bush.

After a few hours of silent and very cautious walking, Kiras asked, "Should we find somewhere to camp?"

"That sounds like a good idea. I don't know where base camp is, though," he said worriedly as he scanned the derelict area.

"It is back in that direction," Kiras replied, gesturing over to what was once a busy town centre. "But it is too far for us to reach. It would probably take as weeks on foot."

Attica nodded. "Who do you know that?"

"I like Geography," Kiras admitted, nonchalantly. He kicked a solitary stone as hard as he could with his tired foot and watched it skim across the parched landscape.

"Really? You never really seemed like the Geography type," Attica observed, arching an eyebrow.

"I not I'm not well-exercised like you or anything, but I do have a brain." Kiras had always been jealous of Attica, ever since they had met only a year ago at the military training facility of Thanatos. Attica was built like an athlete, with firm cheekbones and powerful arms. Kiras, on the other hand, was much more averagely built. He was very slim and his hair was more or less all over the place. He was not particularly fit and had only gotten into the army because his parents had simply begged the authorities to let him in. Otherwise, he would have been viewed as too weak to enrol. Now, though, he really was starting to regret ever wanting to take part.

"What's wrong?" Attica asked, noticing Kira's sad expression.

"Nothing, really," Kiras replied, before adding, "I guess I just expected it to be fun to be here and to be doing this. I thought we were fighting for what was right and for what we believe in. But, now, I'm not so sure."

"I understand," Attica replied. He studied their harsh surroundings, until his eyesight fell upon a dirty, rather unkempt looking building. It was grey in colour, but whether that was simply natural or because of all the pollution and conflict, Attica could not tell for sure. "Look, there!" He said as he pointed to the dilapidated building.

"So?" Kiras replied, frowning at the horrible abode which he saw.

"We can stay there, if there's no one home."

Kiras nodded reluctantly and followed Attica over to the building. Attica carefully pushed the door open and found that no one was there.

Kiras sighed as he flopped down on a chair, which was actually rather uncomfortable, but he didn't care. He was too tired to care. "We can get some well-earned rest here!" He exclaimed.

"Certainly," Attica said.

Kiras closed his eyes and tried to shut his eyes as tightly as he possibly could. However, he couldn't even manage to bring himself to do that. His mind was too awake and his body was too alert. What if they were not alone? What if there were spies out there? A Hypnite could be skulking around outside the dilapidated building in which they slept right at that moment. Kiras groaned with a mixture of weariness and desperation. He was extremely tired, but he couldn't sleep. He cast his gaze over to Attica, who was fast asleep and snoring very loudly. "Attica?" Kiras ventured carefully and quietly.

Attica coughed and rolled over. There were no beds, so he had chosen to lie on the floor, with Kiras taking the tattered old chair over in the far corner. He opened his eyes and was very thankful for the fact that he didn't have to adapt to the light, for it was as dark inside the building as it was outside the building. "What is it?" He asked quietly and tiredly.

"I can't sleep," Kiras admitted as he craned his head so that he could get a better look of the stars out of the window. Once, only a few years ago, he used to be able to look out of his bedroom window and he would be greeted by a wonderful sight. He would see the ice volcanoes of his Thanatos' moon, Theia, erupting every night and he would see the many constellations that lit up the dim sky. Now, though, all he would see would be the clouds of toxic gases that surrounded his home world. Whenever he even took a step outside, his eyes would feel like mild burning and his throat would feel stuck. However, he had begun to get used to it and now, it was almost starting to feel normal.

Attica moaned uncomfortably, saying quietly, "What do you want me to do about it?" He sat up and tried to change his sleeping position. He was using his provisions bag as a makeshift pillow, and it certainly was not very comfortable. All of the things in there, though, were not his. He and Kiras had been a group of at least ten soldiers. Five of them had died, including Kiras' older brother, Aeson, and the rest had either been taken prisoner or had deserted and run away. So, Attica had taken what he could. He needed to stay alive, whatever the cost may be.

"I don't know," Kiras whispered, sighing. He fixed his gaze out of the window. "I wonder whether we will ever get there," he said rather dreamily and expectantly.

Attica tried to plump his makeshift pillow, and when he was slightly more comfortable then he was before, lay flat on his back. "Where?" He asked.

"To the stars," Kiras said, as if it were blatantly obvious.

"Why would you want to go up there?" Attica asked plainly. "Everything and everyone down there comes to us."

"Like what? The Ferengi? The Romulans?" Kiras retorted spitefully. "What help are they?"

"Not everyone is that bad, Kiras," Attica said as comfortingly as he could. "You have to realise that. Those people from Starfleet, they will help us," he reminded him.

The younger soldier sighed and then subsequently slumped back into his chair. "I know that. But, I still can't sleep." He looked down at his dirty nails and scarred hands. He had seem so much in the past few months and all he wanted now was to get just one night of pure and relaxing sleep. His uniform was tattered and his utility belt was hanging down by his side, as all of the stitching had come loose. His handheld phaser had only one or two shots left in it, and he was saving them for when he may really need it. The only thing he had on him that was a small first aid kit which was supplied to all Thanatosian soldiers as standard issue. Although, to his surprise and gratefulness, his boots did fit and were actually rather comfortable, and probably were in desperate need of a wash.

Attica muttered something to himself and then replied, only a little louder and in a rather mocking tone of voice, "Well, what can I do? You're not a baby, Kiras. I can't look after you."

Kiras nodded and the sunk his head into his tired shoulders. He was not a baby, but he was barely even a man. He was only at the young age of nineteen and Attica was only a little older, at twenty two. His brother had been twenty five when he had died, Kiras couldn't help but to wonder if he, himself, would be older than Aeson when the time came for him to die.

He had no family. At least, none that were worth mentioning. His mother and father had been killed when a photon torpedo fired by the Hypnites, had struck their neighbourhood. Kiras and Aeson had been unharmed because they were at military school, on the other side of the planet when it had happened. Kiras had had a lot of friends, because he didn't have much in the way of a family. He had always loved his mother, but his father was not as gentle as she was. He was much more violent and had a very short temper. In a way, Kiras was thankful that he had died, but regretted the fact that his mother had too. Every single time he thought of here, a lump began to form in his throat and he would cry, sometimes only on the inside, but sometimes it would be uncontrollable.

Kiras had a few close friends. He had met them all at the academy, including the one who he thought would be his future wife. Usually, females were not allowed in the military school, but because the Thanatosians had a population of only two billion and the Hypnites had a population of a little less than three billion, they had been permitted to enrol. However, she had been missing in action for quite some time, over three weeks, so he had given up most hope. His other two most close friends, Ophion and Leto, had been killed and the whereabouts of Themis and Erebos was not known. Now, he only had Attica for company and friendship.

Kiras stopped his train of thought and then quickly nodded in response to Attica's rude, yet truthful statement and then closed his eyes. He tried his hardest to get some rest and, after a lot of painstaking frustration, he finally managed to slip into slumber.


	6. Acquainting

Commander William T. Riker frowned heavily and began to stroke his beard in a series of smooth, continuous motions. Seated next to him, Deanna Troi did not have to ask him what was worrying him; she could tell. Riker noticed her disapproving glance which was quite obviously directed at him and said, trying to vent out his frustration somehow, "Deanna, I know you want to say something."

She raised an eyebrow and the let out a short and high pitched chuckle. "I wasn't going to say anything, Will." The captain wasn't with them, so she thought they could forget with the usual formalities.

"Well, it seemed as though you were," he said plainly as he stared out at the stars streaming across the sky as the Enterprise sped through space at maximum warp.

She smiled and looked him straight in the eye, "I wouldn't need to have telepathy to notice that you were worried about something."

"I know, sorry," Riker said apologetically. "I'm just worried about the captain. We haven't heard from him for over a week. It shouldn't have taken him that long."

"Will," Deanna said carefully, "the journey there was supposed to take that long, was it not?"

Then, at that moment, Riker remembered that she was right. He had always trusted Deanna. After all, she was the ship's counsellor, but, something still told him that something had gone wrong. He thought for a moment, carefully, but only quite briefly and then asked, "Data? How long was the journey to Charon expected to take?"

The golden skinned android, who was, as always, positioned at the Ops console, keyed a command quickly and almost effortlessly into computer and, when he had gotten a response, turned to face the commander. "Approximately five days, sir. However, if you would rather I gave you a more exact answer, then I would—"

Riker cut him off, with a brief raise of his right hand. "Thank you, Data. That will be fine."

The android turned to face his station at the helm console, before twitching his head slightly and turning back around to face the first officer and Deanna Troi. "But, sir, it has been over six and a half days since the captain left."

Riker nodded and then sighed, concerned and frustrated. "I know." He paused for a short moment and then asked the Klingon officer who was stood towards the back of the bridge, "Mr Worf, can we send a message to the captain's shuttlecraft?"

The Klingon studied the tactical display console which was lain out in front of him and then replied loudly, "Yes, sir."

"Do it," Riker said, feeling a sensation of something akin to pride. He had wanted to say 'make it so', but he managed to refrain himself from doing so. Besides, it only really sounded good when the captain said it.

The Klingon acknowledged the commander's request and the proceeded to carry out all the necessary calculations. "Sir, we are getting no reply."

"Try again, Mr Worf," Riker ordered. He was beginning to get tense and he was starting to show it.

Worf nodded curtly. He attempted to hail the captain again, but nothing happened. "Sir, there still is no response."

"Maybe it's the radiation…" Riker thought out loud.

Lieutenant commander Data, with his superhuman hearing heard this and decided that he should put the first officer and now, acting captain, straight. "Commander, that is not possible. The radiation emitted by that star is not able to interfere with subspace or even radio communications."

"Ok then," Riker said firmly as he formed a steeple out of his hands on the large table of the conference room. "For some time, we haven't heard from the captain. And, I think it's safe to say that we don't know where he is or what has happened to him."

Deanna frowned and she could already sense the feelings of dread and concern which were being so very strongly emitted by everyone in the room, with the exception of lieutenant commander Data, of course.

Riker continued with his speech, "As we are not at a distance close enough to the planetary body of Charon to transport down, we must think of some other method of getting there." He looked at the faces of everyone who was sat at the table with him. He desperately wanted someone to come up with a safe and preferably quite viable answer.

"We could send a shuttle," Geordi La Forge suggested. He wondered why no one else had thought of that originally. It made perfect sense to send a shuttle. They were small and reliable and the Enterprise had quite a lot of them at hand.

"That would be inadvisable," Data said, warningly. "The radiation would be fatal to any humanoid life forms."

Geordi moaned quietly and then sat back in his chair. Riker started to tap his fingers on the desk, until he felt Deanna's hand on his arm and he managed to refrain from doing it anymore.

"What would you suggest then, Data?" The first officer asked expectantly. He was hoping for a good answer and was sure that the android could provide one.

The android shook his head slowly. "I do not have another suggestion, commander."

Riker felt his heart sink and his face definitely showed it. Data, nevertheless, picked up his point, saying, "However, I will volunteer to go in the shuttlecraft."

"I thought you said that the radiation would kill us," Riker said, concerned and confused.

Data nodded politely. "I did. However, I was referring to the fact that it would prove fatal to yourselves." When he said that, he noticed Worf's mouth tremble slightly; he was quite obviously annoyed and was therefore muttering something under his breath.

"What do you mean?" Riker asked, arching an eyebrow as he did so.

"I did not mean to cause offence," Data responded quickly and in his usual polite tone of voice. "I simply meant that, whilst the radiation would prove to be fatal to people, for me, it should be tolerable."

"And," Riker said cautiously, "you would be happy to go?"

The android nodded defiantly. "If I can offer assistance in any way during our search for Captain Picard, then my abilities are at your disposal."

"I don't suppose it would bother you that you would have to go alone, would it?" Riker asked, waiting for a reply. He knew the answer would probably be negative.

"I do not require companionship, therefore, I would not be affected personally if I had to go alone," Data responded simply.

Just at that moment, Beverly Crusher intervened, saying, "I wouldn't be so sure that Data has to go by himself."

"Who could possibly survive the radiation?" Deanna asked her friend, intrigued. "I know of no species who could withstand such a thing."

Beverly smiled at the counsellor. "That's what you would think. But, one crewmember could. In fact, I know she could."

"Who?" Asked Riker.

"Ensign Monroe," Beverly Crusher explained. "She came aboard from star base eleven."

Riker frowned, unconvinced at the doctor's words. "How could she survive? She's human, isn't she?"

"She is human, commander," the doctor replied. "However, before she was born, her cells were genetically enhanced."

"That's impossible!" Lieutenant Worf retorted, a bit louder than he was expecting. He had read everything there was to know about Khan. He didn't like the idea of another person with the ability to overpower him, let alone a human female.

Beverly shook her head and replied, "No, it's not impossible. But, it is illegal."

"Should we not report her or something?" Geordi asked, confused.

"We can't," Beverly replied. "She was born on the troubled, yet very advanced colony Tau Cygni V. It freed itself from Federation rule over fifty years ago, so Starfleet has no jurisdiction."

"I see," Riker said as he mused over what to do.

"I shouldn't have told you all that," Beverly admitted. "I only said it because I had to. I was betraying patient-doctor confidentiality."

"Well, thank you, doctor," commander Riker said, pleased.

Data raised a finger slightly. "Commander?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"Will ensign Monroe be accompanying me in the shuttlecraft?"

Riker nodded in response to Data's question and then gave everyone the indication that they could now leave the conference room and resume with their usual duties.

Lieutenant commander Data was standing in the main corridor of deck eleven of the Starship Enterprise. He had only been stood there for a short while, and he wasn't sure whether or not he should press the comm panel which was located on the wall outside the door of the room. The room was the personal quarters on Ensign Gina Monroe. After quite some time of deliberation, he pressed the comm panel and spoke into it, "This is commander Data. Can I come in?"

Ensign Monroe took her time when it came to replying to Data. After waiting for a few dozen more seconds, with no audible response, he was starting to wonder whether or not he should just leave or if he should enter anyway. She was only an ensign, and he, being a lieutenant commander and a senior member of staff, could override the door. However, he had always been a polite individual and decided to stay that way.

Just when Data was about to press the comm panel again, he heard Gina Monroe's voice say, "Yes, you can come in."

The door slid open quietly and quickly and Data walked into the quarters to see Gina walking towards him. She had a hair clip balanced in between her teeth and she was holding her long dark hair up behind her head. She took the clip out of her mouth and used it to tie up her hair in a neat pony tail. "Was something wrong, commander?" She asked.

Data tried to erase the blank expression from his face. "No, everything is fine."

"Why are you here, then?" She asked rather impertinently, before rushing to add, "If you don't mind me asking."

"Your confusion is understandable," Data responded simply. "However, I came here because I understand that it is normal human practise to 'get to know' the people who they will spend inordinate amounts of time with."

For a slight moment, she wasn't sure what exactly he was referring to. Why would they be spending time together? Then, she remembered, saying, "Oh, you mean the shuttlecraft?"

He nodded.

"I have to admit, Data," she said, "I'm a little nervous about this whole thing."

He stepped forward and replied helpfully, "There is no need for you to be nervous. I will be accompanying you."

"No, what I mean is that I'm nervous about going with you," she said.

He cocked his head to one side, obviously a little confused with her last comment. "May I ask why?"

"Because… well… you're an android, and I…"

"Does that trouble you?" He asked calmly.

She shook her head and then frowned. "No, well… yes, it does."

"Why?"

"I've never been comfortable around technology. When commander Riker told me that I was to go with you, I tried to think of excuses as to why I couldn't go. But, none of it worked, so, here I am." She sighed and then slumped into a chair that was close by.

Data said nothing more, but just stood staring at her and tried to think of some way in which he could make her feel better. But, nothing sprang to mind.

"Are you prepared for our journey, ensign?" Data asked Gina as she and he prepared to board the shuttlecraft Kepler.

She nodded as bravely as she could. "Yes… I think."

She and him stepped into the shuttlecraft and took up their respective positions inside it. Data was sat on the left hand side of the vehicle, so that he could control the shuttlecraft itself and Gina was positioned next to him. She had the task of monitoring the craft's functions and systems so that they would know if anything was wrong.

"Are you?" She asked as she began to proceed with the routine take-off checks.

He turned his head to look at her. "I believe so."

As she watched his pale hands dance naturally and extremely quickly across the computer controls, she was forced to remember, once again, that this man who was sat next to her was not a human. He was an android. And, an android was a piece of technology.

Suddenly, the craft began to move forward steadily, whilst rising upwards at the same time and the Enterprise's shuttle bay doors were opened. The Kepler craft effortlessly and smoothly slid out through the open doors and found itself in the midst of the immense black void which was outer space.

Behind the Kepler, the Enterprise was rapidly getting smaller and smaller. After a short while, it became nothing more than a tiny little silver dot and then, it was nowhere to be seen. Gina had never been in a shuttlecraft before, at least, not whilst on an away mission. She had only just graduated from Starfleet Academy a mere year ago and serving aboard the Enterprise was her first ever proper assignment. So, naturally, she was nervous, yet also quite excited.

The journey was expected to take a few days, at the most. The sky seemed to stay the same for Gina. Although she could clearly see that the stars were changing and that the constellations were forever moving around, it all looked more or less the same to her. Of course, she was interested by the universe. She was fascinated. However, she was not in the mood to be trying to spot what galaxy clusters she could see or count how many red dwarfs there were. She was just staring out of the window.

Data took notice of her pensive expression. To him, it seemed as though she was worried about something. He hoped it wasn't something to do with him. "Ensign, is something wrong?" He asked her tentatively.

She had been in a dreamlike state and it took her a while to reply. "Sorry?" She asked as she looked up to face him.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked again.

"Oh, no, not really."

He knitted his brows, unsatisfied with her answer. "I should require you to elaborate on that response."

"I'm fine," she reassured him. Then, she added quickly, "Well, no I'm not. I'm really not."

Data considered what would be an appropriate response and then asked her politely, "May I ask why?"

"My parents died in a shuttlecraft," she replied quietly as she turned away so she wouldn't have to face him.

"I am sorry," he said quietly, "I did not know."

"No, no one does," she said. "They were training at Starfleet Academy when their shuttle's guidance systems broke and was destroyed by Jupiter's gravity."

Data didn't know how he should react. Should I say sorry again? Should I offer her someone to talk to? Or, should I just ignore her? He decided on what to do. "Is that why you did not wish for me accompany you?" He asked, being carefully with what he said.

"No, it's because… You're going to think I'm stupid for saying this…" she said as she sniffed a little.

"I will not think you are stupid. I will endeavour to offer you help in any way I can," he replied firmly and helpfully.

"I don't like technology. I'm scared of it," she said, ashamed and embarrassed with herself.

"And," he began carefully, "you are scared of me?"

"No, I don't think so, Data. You're one of the nicest people I have ever met. But, I'm just careful with who I trust, that's all." She turned to face Data and he could see how distressed she was. "I was orphaned when I was ten, Data."

"I did not know my parents either," he said.

She frowned and then retorted, without really thinking as much as she should have, "It's not the same thing."

"I suppose not," he said calmly.

"No, I… I didn't mean it like that," she replied quickly. "All I meant was that… I don't know what I mean. I'm just angry, that's all."

"I did not feel offended," he responded.

Gina made an attempt at a smile, and it worked, to some extent. A tear fell down her cheek and she reached up to catch it. There were no more tears, only the one. "I don't know why it's affecting me so much now," she wondered aloud. "It's been fiteen years since… since they died."

"Grief can affect different people in many different ways," he reminded her.

"I guess so," she agreed. "I'm sorry if I seem rude to you, Data. I don't mean to be. I hardly trust anyone. It's my fault."

"You should try and trust people, Gina," he said respectfully.

She frowned, unconvinced. "I don't think I can do that. It's not that simple. I don't even think I trust anyone. I can't. The only people I ever think I've truly trusted were my parents, but they're gone, so…"

"As far as I know, everyone in Starfleet can be trusted. But, all things considered, many people have called me naïve in the past, therefore, my word may not be that reliable."

She smiled and shook her head. "No, Data. You're right. I don't think you're naïve. You're just not like other people. Maybe, before we embarked upon this mission, I wouldn't have trusted you and I would've been scared of you. But, after talking with you for a few hours, I do trust you, Data. Thank you."

Data smiled somewhat in return and then continued with his duties.

Data heard a noise. It was reasonably quiet, but he could still hear it. He looked over to his side and saw the Gina was yawning. She had her hand over her mouth and her eyes were drooping.

"Gina?" He asked, interrupting her yawn.

She turned her head to face him and then suddenly looked alert. "Oh, sorry, Data. I'm just a little tired. Staying up for fifteen hours straight doesn't do me too much good."

"I understand that you are genetically enhanced, though," he pointed out logically.

"I am, but I'd rather not talk about it." She saw Data's expression become one which denoted disappointment, so added, "My grandmother cared for me once my parents had died. She told me that I was genetically enhanced whilst I was still developing as a baby."

"It is my understanding that genetically enhanced individuals possess exceptional capabilities. Would it not make you less susceptible to fatigue?" Data asked.

"Apparently not," she replied. "I wasn't enhanced in that way. It was only mentally. However, there was apparently some side effect, which made my epidermal cells grow abnormally."

"That is why you are not affected by the radiation," Data supplied.

She nodded in agreement with him. "Yes, that's what I think. I am also not vulnerable to all other types of radiation, even gamma rays."

"Intriguing," Data mused out loud. When he next turned to face Gina, she was fast asleep. She looked peaceful and comfortable. Data envied her ability to sleep. He wasn't tired, nor had he ever been tired, but he was fascinated to know what it would feel like to be tired. He, however, thought no more of it and continued to work.


	7. A Mystery

Meanwhile, on board the Starship _Enterprise,_ Dr Beverly Crusher was confused. In fact, she was very confused. She couldn't remember herself ever being this confused before in her entire life. She was sat in the office of the Chief Medical Officer and was staring intently at the small, high definition computer display. None of this makes sense, she thought to herself. The thing on the screen which she was staring at so very closely was a diagram of a blood sample of one of the Enterprise's crewmen.

"This can't be true," she said out loud, expressing her confusion.

Just at that moment, someone popped their head around the doorway, "Uh, doctor?" The man asked quietly.

The doctor looked up from the computer monitor and said, wearily, "Yes?"

"Can I come in?" He asked, although he was already actually inside the room, so there was no real point in asking her in the first place.

Beverly ignored this slight oversight and replied sweetly, "Of course. What can I help you with?" She asked.

"I'm… I'm Lieutenant Forbes, I was sent here to collect the results of my blood test," he ventured nervously. He had only just been assigned to this majestic ship.

She wanted to slap herself. "Oh, yes, yes," she replied hastily, trying to cover up the fact that she had completely and utterly forgotten who this man sat in front of her was. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep you in sickbay," she said, in a rather matter-of-fact tone of voice.

"What? Why?" He stammered, obviously confused and a little concerned.

"I need to run the tests again," she responded as she studied his perplexed expression.

He frowned and then arched an eyebrow. "What's wrong with me?" He asked nervously.

"I'm not too sure, but the readings are quite strange. I'll have to keep you in for observation."

"I have a shift now, in engineering," he said, as he stood up and began to leave the Chief Medical Officer's office.

"I'll clear it up with the captain," she said, before realizing that Captain Picard was, for all intents and purposes, missing, so she then added, "Commander Riker."

The Lieutenant nodded firmly and then thanked the doctor, before walking into the main area of sickbay. "Where should I go?" He asked her as he hovered rather strangely in the middle of the room.

"Over there would be good," she said as she gestured to an empty biobed.

Lieutenant Forbes sat down on the biobed as instructed.

"Commander," doctor Crusher began sternly as she stood around in sickbay. "Thank God you're here!" She sighed heavily with relief.

Riker stepped into the ship's sickbay fully and walked over to her. "What is it, doctor?" He asked, with a worried and fed up expression on his face.

She shook her head and sighed again, but this time more softly. "I don't know, to be honest. Only four hours ago, Lieutenant Forbes came to sickbay to collect his blood test results, and I found something anomalous in the tests, so I instructed him to stay here until further notice."

The commander nodded his head agreeably, "Yes, I know that. But, just slow down, doctor," he said to her, putting a reassuring hand on her arm.

"I'll try," she said, still quite unconvinced. "But, since then, seventeen other crewmembers have come in, complaining of a headache."

Commander Riker looked around the sickbay, and, sure enough, there were a lot more people than usual in biobeds, and the majority of them had their hands held up to their heads. "I see," he nodded in response.

"I don't know what is wrong with all of them. Now, Lieutenant Forbes is complaining of a headache too."

"Are there any other symptoms?" Riker asked nervously. He didn't really know all that much about things of a medical nature, but he wanted to try and help the doctor wherever he possibly could.

She shook her head sorrowfully. "Only the fact that they are all sweating a lot more than usual."

"Ah," Riker said nervously.

All of a sudden, Doctor Crusher heard a noise. It had been so unexpected and so out of the blue that it almost actually made her jump out of her skin. Then, a voice came loudly, "La Forge to Doctor Crusher,"

Then, she quickly realised it was just her combadge. She tapped it and said, "Crusher here, what is it Geordi?" She asked him, wearily. She had too much on her mind to be worrying about anything else.

"You're needed down in engineering," Geordi's uncertain voice came loudly. He then added, shakily, "It's urgent!"

She nodded and the replied quietly, and with a little sigh, "On my way."

Doctor Crusher made her way to engineering quickly, with Commander Riker striding along at her side.

Once in sickbay, Crusher almost fainted. The sight which she was met with was, for lack of a better word, a mother's worse nightmare. Geordi walked over to her, his arms flailing wildly, saying hastily, "I don't know what's wrong with him, I just went down to ship's stores and I came back to see him like this."

Crusher bent down to get a better look at the crewmember lying on the floor. He was fitting violently and shivering as if he were extremely cold. It was Wesley Crusher. She put her hand on his head, he had a very high fever. "Wes!" She said loudly and urgently. "Wes, can you hear me?"

No response came, he just kept on shaking violently and his eyes almost rolled back into his head. The doctor picked up her medical tricorder and scanned Wesley. She shook her head, everything seemed to be fine. Apparently, there really was nothing wrong with him. She sighed and angrily put the tricorder down.

Riker knelt down beside her and said carefully, "Doctor, I'll carry him to sickbay. It's not too far." He looked at her and saw her nod, so he slipped his arms cautiously under Wesley's body and picked him up.

Once they had gotten Wesley to sickbay, Crusher hunted around for a free biobed, and, thankfully, it didn't take her long to find one. Riker laid the boy on the bed gently and stood back, letting the doctor do her job properly. She called to nurse Ogawa, "Can I have 10cc's of kayolane?"

The nurse nodded obediently and quickly brought over the correct amount of kayolane.

Crusher carefully injected it into the side Wesley's neck and waited for it to have an effect. Soon, after no more than a few seconds, if that, Wesley stopped fitting and his body stopped moving. Crusher sighed a sigh of relief. The sedative had worked. Now that he was finally stable, she set about trying to diagnose her son.

But, before she could even look up at the readings which the medical scanner, she heard a horrific sound. Someone was being sick. She managed to trace the sound to Lieutenant Forbes, who was still lying on the opposite side of sickbay. Nurse Ogawa fetched a bucket, whilst some trainee nurses turned him over on his side, to prevent him from choking and managed to catch the most of the puke. But, the rest of it had hit the floor and two other nurses came to mop it up with rather disgusted looks on their faces.

Beverly crusher made her way as promptly and as carefully as possible to the ill lieutenant and picked up a medical tricorder. Again, much like when she had scanned Wesley, it showed that everything was fine with her patient. She was so very frustrated that she came very close to actually throwing the tricorder on the floor, but she managed to refrain herself from doing so and just calmly placed the tricorder on the cabinet which was beside the biobed.

Nurse Ogawa looked at the doctor and asked her calmly, "Should we sedate him too?"

Crusher nodded her head, rather uncertainly and held out her hand and Ogawa gave her the kayolane. Crusher administered it to Forbes and sighed, relieved, when he seemed to be stable.


	8. Crash Down

"Data!" The ensign yelled, terrified. The scream would have sent a shiver down his spine if it could.

He looked up from his work and then he turned so that he was facing her. "What is it?" He asked. His tone of voice, as always, was one of neutrality. He was absolutely calm.

Gina on the other hand, was the complete and utter opposite. "Are you seeing this?" She asked hastily as she gently but quickly prodded the computer screen in front of her, which was displaying the radar systems of their shuttlecraft.

He tilted his head to one side, a little confused. He had been so engrossed in his work that he had almost actually forgotten that they were on a mission. He studied the radar display and announced, "There appears to be some sort of missile—"

He was cut off quickly by Gina, who shouted, "I know, I know! And, it's headed straight for us!" She grew frantic.

Data did not panic, as it was simply impossible for him to do so. Instead, he was remaining calm; forever the voice of reason. "We should be able to outrun it," he pointed out, trying to be logical.

She managed to compose herself, to some extent. "I wouldn't be so sure," she muttered as she ran through the small craft's diagnostic systems, and, with a horrified and scared look plastered on her face, she announced, "Warp engines are down!"

"That cannot be possible…" Data said, truly dumbfounded. He then checked the diagnostic files for himself and relayed the information which they were both dreading so much, "You are correct. All warp power is lost."

She felt a thin film of sweat begin to form on her forehead and wiped it away with her sleeve. "We've lost impulse power too," she said quietly, regarding him intently. She knew that Data, of all people, would be able to think of something.

"I estimate that we will crash land within five minutes. The gravity of Hypnos is pulling us towards it. I see no feasible way in which we could evade its hold on us," Data replied, rather pessimistically.

"What about the missile?" Gina asked as she desperately tried to make an attempt at getting the shuttlecraft's impulse drive to work again. Her attempt was in vain. There was no way the shuttle would ever fly again. The circuits were fried and there was absolutely no chance of a viable recovery. It was the best shuttlecraft that the Enterprise had to offer, and now it was destroyed.

"If we do not crash, the missile will hit us, although our shields should hold."

And, sure enough, Data was correct. Only a few mere seconds later and the missile struck the shuttle's hard and durable outer shell. It made no hole in the bodywork, but a fireball began to erupt, where it had struck the shuttle's main propulsion systems. Looking out of the window, Gina could see the harsh landscape of Hypnos beginning to get closer and closer to them.

"Brace for impact!" Data bellowed loudly, but still somehow controlled. Gina could only just about hear him. His voice was basically drowned out by the high pitched screeching of the shuttlecraft's labouring engines going into overdrive.

And then, the shuttle stopped moving and everything went black. They last thing that Gina could remember was Data's voice warning her of the impending impact. Data opened his eyes and began to scan the area. It was dark and there was some sort of dust in the air. It was very, very dusty. He could barely see a thing. Once he had given his eyes more of a chance to adjust to the new surroundings, he turned his head, after blinking a considerable amount of times. He looked around, but he could see nothing. The air around him was, for lack of a better word, grimy and he could just about figure out that he was actually outside. The air was so polluted that they could have very well crashed into the middle of a massive bonfire, luckily, though, the impact of the crash had obviously extinguished the fire.

He reached into his utility belt and soon located his tricorder. He took it out and flipped it open. He tried to turn it on, but it wouldn't work. He was thankful, at times like this that he couldn't get annoyed, being an android. Otherwise, had that been the case, he may very well have lost his temper, and, in pure exasperation, thrown his tricorder away. However, he calmly placed it back in his utility belt and sat there for a while.

But, not for long. He then felt another thought cross his mind. Where was Gina? It had been so dusty that he hadn't been able to see her, even though she was actually still strapped in her seat next to him, as she always had been. He managed to unbuckle his own seatbelt, after a lot of struggling and grappling and then stood up. He did so very carefully and slowly. For, he had no way of knowing where they had crashed. They could be on the edge of a cliff, teetering over the brink of death and even the slightest movement could upset the balance and send them tumbling down to whatever was below.

Thankfully, though, when some of the dust left over from the impact had cleared away, he could see that they were not on the edge of some unforgiving and dangerous cliff. They had crashed into some sort of field. Well, it was not really a field anymore. Most of the vegetation had died out and there were no animals which Data could see nearby. There were tiny little metal disks which were embedded into the infertile soil. He could tell that, without even moving closer, they were unexploded mines. He knew better than to go over to one and double check.

"Gina?" He said to her softly and expectantly. He got no response and so he reached his hand up to her neck so that he could check her pulse. He sighed a sigh of relief when he found that she was still breathing.

He was about to pull out his tricorder when he was struck with the awful realisation that it didn't work. He hunted around in the small, confined cabin of the shuttlecraft for the emergency supplies. All the hyposprays and other types of visible medical supplies had been broken beyond any real repair or were simply destroyed. The cabin was very dark inside the shuttle. All of the computer systems were not operational and the polluted gases which swamped the outside air were more or less blocking out most of the sun. The star was a red dwarf, which do not give out much light or heat. It was considerably less powerful, less hot and less bright than the star which dominated the Sol system; the home of the planet Earth.

Data wondered what he should do. He didn't know whether he should try and move Gina, or if he should just leave her. He knew that it wasn't a good thing to move someone if they had a broken bone, but he didn't know if she did have a broken bone. He could, however, tell that her injuries were not extremely serious and that they were not indeed life threatening, so he decided to leave her be until she woke up. There was no way he could get any help. He and Gina were right in the middle of a warzone. He highly doubted that anyone would take pity on them.


	9. A Desolate Place

Her eyes flickered and the first thing she saw was Data's concerned looking face looming over her. She was in such a lot of shock that she said, startled, "Data, what happened? What happened?"

He said to her calmly and reservedly, "We have crashed on Hypnos. You are injured."

Then, at that very moment, a horrifically strong sensation of searing pain shot down her arm. "I think… I think I've broken my arm!" She yelled in absolute and sheer terror.

Data frowned and then gently placed her hands on her right arm. He felt around her right shoulder, causing her to yelp out in pain every so often. "Try not to move," he said softly.

She nodded and winced as he continued to prod her injured arm.

"I do not think it is broken," he said, coming to a final judgment.

"What's wrong with it, then?" She asked, the terror and worry still very visible in her eyes and in her face.

"Your shoulder appears to be dislocated," he decided.

She felt a tear cascade down her cheek. She wanted to wipe it away but she couldn't. "Can't you fix it?" She asked, hoping that the answer would be a positive one.

He knitted his brows, involuntarily. "It is simple enough to do, however—"

Gina cut him off, saying quickly, "Just do it."

"There will be no pain relief. No anaesthetics," he said, telling the truth.

"I… I… thought there were medical supplies over there." Not being able to point, she nodded her head in the direction of the first aid cupboard which was situated towards the back of the shuttlecraft.

He shook his head solemnly and said, "I have already checked. All of the medical supplies have been damaged as a result of the impact."

She took a long breath and then breathed out. "Ok, just do it," she said quietly.

Data nodded in acknowledgment of her brave request and picked up a stray piece of metal, which he fastened to Gina's arm as a sort of splint. "I would not advise this," he said carefully.

She shook her head slowly. "I don't care, just… just do it."

He frowned, very unconvinced. "I am not sure if you can withstand the pain," he pointed out. He looked at her and, after realizing that he was not going to get a response, continued with what he was doing. He positioned his right hand just above the injured shoulder blade and then put his left hand firmly, but softly on her elbow. He asked her, once again, just to be absolutely certain, "Are you certain you wish for me to continue?"

She nodded quickly and hastily as she braced herself for the immense pain which was surely to follow shortly.

Data, inside his head, counted slowly and precisely. He brought up as much information that he could find within his extensive files relating to human medical conditions and injuries. When he was finally one hundred percent satisfied that he had enough information to continue, he relaxed himself and then quickly and carefully pushed the bone back into its proper place.

As a result of the action, Gina yelled out in pain. It had only lasted for a brief moment, but it seemed as though it could have very easily lasted for an eternity. The pain, she felt, was basically immeasurable. She had never felt anything quite like it. She reached out with her other hand and felt her shoulder.

"Gina? Do you feel better now?" Data asked her, concerned and very apprehensive.

She nodded slowly. "Yes… yes. I feel fine. It's just a little tender." She pressed the once injured area and winced. It still was not very comfortable when a lot of pressure was applied to it.

"That is good. It should not dislocate again, unless provoked," he said.

She smiled and replied, appreciatively, "Thank you, Data."

He nodded, taking in her appreciation and then said to her, "We will need to leave this place. There may be patrols nearby."

She reached over to her side and tried to undo her belt, but it was stuck. She pulled at it with as much force as she could, but found that it would not budge. Data, seeing her frustration, realized what was going on and he managed to successfully pull the belt out in one clean movement. He pushed the belt away from her and asked, "Are you able to stand?"

She nodded, quite unsure with herself and then pushed herself up from the seat. She stepped onto her right foot and everything felt as though it were fine. Then, however, she transferred her weight to her left foot and instantly sat back down again. She frowned at her foot and bent down to feel it. It felt slightly swollen. "I think my ankle is twisted," she said.

He bent down and touched her foot, surmising, "It feels as though it is. I will have to carry you."

She frowned and smiled. She managed to prevent herself from chuckling. "Could you lift me?" She asked, almost mesmerised by him.

He nodded in response to her question and a little smile crept across his face. She stood up, balancing on her right foot and he put one of his arms under her arms and the other under knees. Once he was sure that he had her full weight, he carried her out of the damaged shuttle and they were finally outside. The air, however, was not particularly fresh. It wasn't toxic or poisonous, it just caught in their throats and almost burned their eyes.

"Where do we go now?" Gina asked as she held tightly onto Data.

He had to walk slower than usual, whilst carrying her. He didn't think he would drop her but still, he didn't really want to risk it either. "I do not know," he admitted.

She craned her neck behind his shoulder and then straight ahead. All she could see was a barren desert like place with little vegetation. Every so often, she would have to alert Data of a mine that was in the path and he would react instantly, jumping out of the way carefully and quickly.

"There!" She said as she pointed towards the east. "We can hide there, can't we?"

He tilted his head and looked down at her. She looked back up at him and couldn't help but smile. He looked in the direction in which she was pointing. And, sure enough, he could see a mountain. It wasn't particularly tall, and was orange in colour. And, there was a large cave embedded in the side of the mountain. Data didn't know for sure whether that was the colour which it had always been, or if its constant exposure to the nasty air had caused it to discolour. Instead of examining it, he quickened his pace a little and said, "It looks like a suitable place to hide."

She was tired and tried to stop herself from falling asleep. However, she couldn't and had to give in. She closed her eyes and fell asleep quickly; rocked to sleep by the gentle movements of Data's steady pacing towards the cave.

It took at least an hour for them to arrive at the cave. It would have surely taken much longer, had it not been for Data's inability to feel fatigue. He cautiously entered the cave. It was dark and damp and didn't smell all that good. But, it would do for now. He looked down at Gina and saw that she was still fast asleep in his arms. However, something woke her up and her eyes flickered open abruptly.

Data thought that he might have disturbed her, so he tried to apologise, "I am sorry, I did not mean to wake you."

"No, it wasn't you. It was this awful smell," she replied, holding her nose and trying not to breathe in too heavily.

He frowned. He couldn't find anything wrong with the smell. It was just damp. The stench of moss and wetness was all over the cave. It wasn't really what he could describe as pleasant, but it certainly wasn't repellent. He laid Gina down on the hard, cold floor of the cave.

"Should we start a fire, or something?" She asked him as she looked around the desolate and dark cave.

He considered her question for a moment and then replied, "That would be inadvisable. A fire would make our whereabouts very visible for passing patrol groups." From the extreme damage he had seen to the environment around them, Data could easily tell that the soldiers of this planet, Hypnos, would be more than capable of inflicting some heavy injuries to both him and to Gina.

"Good point," she observed. "Maybe I should go look for food?" She then suggested to him.

"That is logical. But, can you move with you injured leg?"

She glanced down at her right foot. She took her boot off and rubbed it gently. It didn't particularly hurt at present. "It doesn't feel so bad now, I'm sure I will be fine."

He frowned, unconvinced with what she had just said. "It would not be advisable for you to attempt to move with your ankle in its present condition."

"Well, I can't very well ask you to go and find food, can I?" She asked him.

He cocked his head to one side, quite obviously confused. "Why not?" He asked.

"Because, you won't be the one eating it, so it would be rude for me to ask you to find food for me," she replied quietly and as nonchalantly as she could manage.

"I do not mind. You have to have nutrition," he said adamantly. "Will you be content if I search for food?" He asked.

She nodded and smiled.

Data then set off to look for food. He walked out of the cave and along the rocky mountain pass. There was nothing that he could see which could possibly be fit for human consumption. He searched for over an hour, and still had no more luck than he had had at the beginning of his search. However, he didn't want to disappoint her, so he carried on with his search.

After some more searching, he finally found something which may be of some use. It was a shallow stream. He knew that it could be infected with all sorts of bacteria, but he wasn't going to drink the water. There was no way that he could cleanse the water. He saw something move in the water and, at first, he thought he may have simply imagined it. But, after he saw the movement again and again, he realized that it was actually real. He bent down beside the river and picked up a thin, yet sharp and reasonably strong stick.

He held it slightly above his shoulder and poised it ready to strike. When he next caught a glimpse of the movement in the water, he jabbed the stick into the source of the movement. And, when he drew the stick back up above the water, he was pleased to see that it was a fish. And, a huge fish at that. He looked at it flounder around in his hands and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it. He had never killed an animal before. He had killed a few people, but only when in self-defence and when it had been absolutely necessary. However, for some reason which he couldn't quite put his finger on, it felt different to kill an animal. And, Data wasn't sure whether it felt worse or better.

He waited for the fish to die and when it finally had, he carried it back to the cave with him. He brought the stick with him too, for her never knew when it might come in handy again.

Soon, he got back to the cave and found Gina sat on a large mound of earth. She had something in her hand, and when he got closer, he could see that it was an insect; some sort of ladybug. When she noticed him arrive, she carefully let the ladybug scuttle away into the darkness and looked up at him. "What is that?" She asked as she caught sight of the large grey thing Data had in his hands.

He bent down beside her and showed it to her. She saw that it was a fish, some sort of carp, and it smelled worse than the cave itself did. "It's huge!" She exclaimed as she reached out to prod the dull coloured dead fish.

"Maybe, we should make a fire, to cook the fish," Data suggested. "Patrols passing by may notice it, but you must eat."

She nodded in agreement and saw a stick lying on the ground next to her. She handed it over to Data, who took it and rubbed it against the stick which he had used to catch the fish. When the fire was not being produced, he put the sticks down and asked her, "Is your phaser operative?"

She reached down into her utility belt and tried to fire the phaser, whilst on its lowest setting, at the wall of the cave. However, no beam came out. It was broken. Data frowned and then tried the same with his own phaser. It too, was not working. Gina moaned and said, stating the obvious, "Looks like we're going to have to do it the old fashioned way."

At first, Data was unsure about what exactly she meant, but then he realized that she meant for him to keep rubbing the sticks together. So, he did just that and after at least fifteen minutes of continuous rubbing, a small spark was visible on the sticks. Gina hobbled around the cave and brought over a collection of about five medium sized stones. She arranged them in a neat circle on the ground and placed some smaller sized sticks inside the circle.

Once he was satisfied that the fire was of a suitable size, he placed the two burning sticks into the circle. Gina smiled at her handiwork but then realized that she was not quite finished. She said to Data, "We can't just put the fish straight into the fire."

He nodded and then replied, "That is true. I cannot think of what we could use to prevent the fish from burning, though."

"Hmm…" she thought carefully and deeply. "How about that stone, over there?" She pointed over to his side.

Data turned around and saw a thin stone that was lying on the ground. "Intriguing," he said approvingly. "It appears to be some sort of flint." He realized he was going a little off topic so picked up the flint and placed it over the fiery hole which was inside the circle of stones. It acted like a sort of lid. He then, with the other hand, placed the fish on top of the flint.

The fish was cooked in little under an hour and a half. Data cut it up and tried to gut it, but he had never done it before so it wasn't done as good as it could have been. He handed over a piece to Gina, who took it gratefully. She hadn't eaten for over a day. She ate it all in under ten minutes. Luckily, she had some tissues in her trouser pocket so could easily wipe away the grease. She looked over at Data and asked, "Data, are you not going to eat anything?"

He frowned, unsure. "I do not require food."

"So, you can still eat, can't you?" Gina asked as she wiped her hands carefully.

He nodded, saying, "I can. However, I would prefer it if you ate the fish, as you require the food more than I do."

"I don't mind, Data. You eat some."

Data nodded and picked up what was left of the fish. "I do, however, think that this meal will dramatically replenish my motor and neural systems," he said, seeing the logic in what she had said.

When he had finished his meal, Gina asked him, trying not be offensive, "Data, what's it like to be an android?"

"I cannot offer you a true answer. I have never known any different from being in this state. I often ask myself what it would be like if I were human, however, I am content with being who I am," he responded honestly.

"And, so you should," Gina replied, smiling. She walked over to him, limping slightly, and sat down beside him. "You're the kindest person I know. You've shown me why I have nothing to fear about technology," she added.

Data couldn't help but smile. He wasn't happy, but he was a little pleased. "It is… nice to be appreciated," he admitted.

"You're welcome," she said sweetly. She yawned and stretched a little. She was quiet for a moment and then said, "You know, it's strange how this planet is called Hypnos, and its twin is called Thanatos. I've heard those names somewhere, but I can't quite think of where."

He noted her thoughtful expression. "They are both from Greek mythology. Hypnos is the God of Sleep and Thanatos is the God of Death."

"That's it," she realised. "Then, Charon… he's the ferryman, right?"

Data nodded in agreement. "Yes. The dwarf planet Pluto, I presume you have heard of it?"

"It's in the same solar system as the Earth," she chuckled. "Of course I have heard of it."

"It has a moon called Charon, too."

"Now, that, I did not know," she admitted. "But, why are these worlds called Greek things? They're not from Ancient Greece."

"No, they are not," Data replied. "I have, however, been to a planet which was almost an exact replica of Ancient Greece."

She grinned. "That is so cool!" She exclaimed. "What was it like?"

"A small planetary body orbiting the main sequence star Gliese 581, called Kronos."

"No, no," she laughed. "I mean, what was it like? You know, like the atmosphere and the people. Where there actually gods?"

He thought for a moment and then shook his head. "I believe there are some 'movies' which narrate tales of Ancient Greece," he began.

Gina nodded, and leant forward with anticipation.

"It was very much like that."

"Where there real gods? You know, like Zeus and Hera?" She pressed him.

Again, he shook his head solemnly. "There were not real gods, no. However, there were people whom the rest of the society would worship as deities. I met, if you will, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Ares and Persephone."

"So, you went to the Underworld?"

"Not as such, no," he admitted.

"Then, how did you meet Hades and Persephone?" She asked him.

"As I have said," he explained. "They were not really gods, as such. They were humanoids, but with extraordinary powers. They were not divine in any way. In the myths, Hades cannot leave his realm unprotected, however, this is not a myth. Therefore, he could leave his realm in the hands of Moirae or Cassandra."

She nodded, finally understanding now. "Ah, and that's how you met Hades and Persephone? Are they nice?"

He nodded, saying, "They were quite pleasant."

All of a sudden, both she and Data felt a very cold wind. The fire which they had used to cook the fish had gone out and the sky outside had become quite dark. Gina shivered quite violently, which caused Data superficial alarm and so he asked, "Gina? Are you all right?"

She nodded slowly, trying to convince him. "Yes, I'm fine." She couldn't resist any longer and she had to rub her shoulders to try and keep warm. The cold seemed to penetrate the very marrow in her bones and her teeth were chattering. She tried to pull the sleeves down on her uniform, but they were simply too tightly fitted. It was like the cold air was pinching her skin.

Data had no nervous system, at least, not of the conventional kind, so he couldn't really feel the cold. Of course, when temperatures were absolutely so cold or hot that they were almost beyond comprehension, his systems would be forced to shut down, so as to preserve his positronic brain and neural net. He frowned, after seeing noticing that she was obviously extremely cold and said to her quietly, "My body is still generating heat, I am certain I can keep you warm enough, so that you are able to sleep."

"That's very sweet of you," she said, smiling. "But, you're not tired, you can't lay here with me all night while you wait for me to fall asleep."

"That does not matter. I can keep watch, to ensure that no patrols walk past."

"Fair enough," she decided and she closed her eyes and then huddled up to him, her head resting on his shoulder. But, she wasn't ready to sleep just yet. "Do you think Commander Riker and the rest of the crew have been able to find the captain yet?"

Data shook his head and looked down at her. "I do not know," he replied simply. He got no reply and realized that she was now sound asleep, so did not say anymore, but continued to scan the area around them and kept looking down at Gina as she slept peacefully.

 


	10. Fading Hope

Riker sighed. He knew, just from looking at the expression on Doctor Crusher's face that the news was almost certainly not going to be good. He had been dreading this moment, but, nevertheless, it still came. "I take it you haven't gotten any further with coming up with a reason for this…" he searched his mind for some assistance about what to call it, before finally deciding on something which he still wasn't absolutely convinced with "… illness?"

She shook her head sorrowfully. She was very, very annoyed and frustrated. "No, but… I just don't get it. I've tried everything I can possibly think of, yet nothing has worked. I really am at a loss," she admitted, bowing her head ever so slightly.

Deanna Troi sighed and then asked the doctor, as calm as ever, "Have there been any fatalities?"

"No, there haven't," Beverly Crusher replied. "That's what is so odd about this whole thing," she then added.

"What is?" Riker asked, as he leant closer towards the table in the conference room. He hated it when he had to call up crewmembers to attend a staff briefing or meeting, as he knew that the reasons why they had had to stage a meeting in the first place was because something bad was happening somewhere and they had to try and sort it out.

Once again, Beverly had that confused expression on her face. "Well, judging by the rate at which the… illness is developing, people should be dying."

"That doesn't make any sense," Riker said, frowning deeply.

"I know it doesn't. But, it's the truth, commander," Doctor Crusher said simply. "I don't know how these people are staying alive so long. It defies all medical knowledge that I have."

Yet again, Riker was over his head. "Well, we need to think of something," he said, stating the obvious.

Just at that moment, Geordi La Forge interrupted them, saying quickly, "What about Data and Ensign Monroe?"

All heads turned to face him. Unfazed, he continued with his worrying words, "We haven't heard from them since they left. That was days ago."

Almost as soon as the words had left his mouth, Commander Riker's combadge chirped loudly and the low, gruff voice of Lieutenant Worf bellowed out, "Bridge to Commander Riker," he waited for him to reply.

"Riker here, go ahead, Mr Worf," Riker said.

"Commander, the president of Hypnos has just sent us a subspace message."

"Can you patch it through?" Riker asked nervously and expectantly as he looked around the dull coloured walls of the main conference room.

The Klingon, although Riker couldn't see it, frowned and shook his head. However, the frustration in his voice was quite evident. "No, it is a recorded message. It was, however, recorded only hours ago."

"What does it say?" Deanna asked, very curious.

Worf was a little shocked that it had been Deanna who had asked, but he ignored it and proceeded to answer her reasonable question, "They have knowledge that the shuttlecraft in which Lieutenant Commander Data and Ensign Monroe were travelling has crashed."

Instantly, Commander Riker felt a wave of heavy guilt sweep over him, for it had been he who had sent them on the away mission. "Are Data and Monroe alive?" He managed to bring himself to ask that awful question and a lump seemed to form in his throat. He was startled when he felt Deanna's comforting hand on his arm, but he soon was able to calm down.

Worf cleared his throat, although it really wasn't necessary to do so. He then replied to the commander, "They did not disclose that information."

"Well, we have to do something. We can't just sit here and do nothing!" Geordi announced loudly and defiantly. Data was his closest friend, he couldn't bear to lose him.

Riker tried to reassure the chief engineer, "Try not to worry, Geordi. I'm sure we can think of something." He looked around the room in the hope that someone might be able to offer some suggestions. However, no one had anything else to say, so Riker added, "Perhaps we could send a probe down to the surface of Hypnos?"

"That is not possible, commander," Worf interjected, speaking through the combadge. "The Hypnites are now forbidding anyone from coming near their planet. No one is to enter and no one is to leave. I doubt even machine would be allowed safe passage."

Riker sighed and put his head in his hands briefly and then lifted his head up again. "Well, then, I'm stuck for ideas."

For a few minutes, everyone in the main conference room was simply silent. Deanna was trying to read the feelings and thoughts of those around the table. However, she had to stop herself when she was only half way through. The thoughts were all too depressing. Not one person really had a positive thought in their heads. They were all either thinking about Data and Gina Monroe, about the captain or about the possibility of an all-out war with the Hypnites. Surprisingly, though, the people of Thanatos did not seem to be as violent as those who called Hypnos their home.

Then, she had an idea. "Can we try and contact Data and Monroe's shuttle?" She asked.

"We've already tried that, counsellor," Geordi responded. "There was no response."

Deanna bowed her head and she prayed for Data and the young ensign to be all right.


	11. Closer and Further (Part I)

Data tried desperately to wake Gina. "Gina!" He whispered to her, as loudly as he could bare to.

Finally, she was roused from her slumber and she blinked in the light. She gazed up at him and saw the worried expression on his face.

"Data, what is it?" She asked.

"I believe…" he began quietly "I believe, we are being watched."

She was dumbfounded. She had thought that the two of them were all alone in this place. It seemed to her to be too magical and too much like paradise for there to be negative things around them. "What makes you think that?" she asked as she sat up and sorted her hair out.

He shook his head and then knitted his brows ever so slightly. "I do not know, Gina. However," he added as he peered out of one of the many cracks in their makeshift shelter, "I have heard footsteps. I believe that they originated from somewhere reasonably close by."

She released her weight from him and then stared at him, highly alarmed. "Should we leave now, do you think?" She asked him.

Data detected the despair in her voice, so he said to her, in an attempt to reassure her, "Try not to worry. I am certain that the individuals who are responsible for the noises I detected will not do us any harm."

"How can you be sure, though?" She asked, unconvinced at his statement, although she found it very sweet.

He made a sound, somewhat similar to a sigh. "I cannot be sure, I was attempting… hope."

She smiled at him, "Well I hope you're right," she said softly. "And, maybe they would have gone now."

"There is always that possibility," Data added.

"Who could they be?" She asked him. "Do you think it could be Starfleet?" When she asked the second question, her face lit up slightly.

He shook his head, "I highly doubt it would be Starfleet. I suspect it to, most likely, be a patrol dispatched by the army of Hypnos."

Gina felt her heart sink quite considerably. "What if they find us?" She asked him nervously.

"I do not know what will happen. However, I would suggest that we stay here for now."

She nodded in agreement and said, "Well, I might as well find something to do."

"I will keep watch, if you wish to leave the shelter for a while. Although, I would not suggest doing so."

"No," she said. "I won't leave. The patrol could be anywhere by now."

Data nodded. He was thankful that she had decided not to leave. He dreaded the very thought that something might happen to her.

She looked up at the bright red dwarf sun and sighed happily. "Data?" She asked him.

He regarded her and replied, "Yes, Gina?"

"Do you know what the temperature is now?" She could feel it getting hotter and hotter.

"It is very unusual and erratic, the climate here. The nights seem to have temperatures of five degrees below zero, yet the daytime temperature is above thirty degrees Celsius," he said, thinking deeply. He then answered her question, "It is, at present, thirty three degrees."

Gina nodded and then smiled at the feel of the hot sun as it hit her face. She took off her boots and placed them by her side. She removed the top part of her uniform, so that her underwear was still on and then she laid down on the ground. It was surprisingly soft. The ground, although a little damp, had quite a lax consistency and was fairly similar to the sand that she remembered from beaches.

All the while, Data sat inside the shelter and did a few small things. He tried to mend a few broken branches and leaves which made up some parts of the makeshift shelter and also surveyed the immediate area. He was very careful never to stray more than a few dozen metres away from the shelter. He looked for signs of what could be a patrol but found nothing of much interest. After some time of searching, he went back to the shelter and saw that Gina was still sunbathing.

He walked over to her and sat down alongside her. She had had her eyes closed so was quite startled when she noticed him next to her. "I take it you found no patrols?" She asked as she started to get up. "Where did I put my uniform top?" She asked herself. The weather did not seem to agree with her wearing the regulation undershirt.

Data thought that she was asking her, so he replied helpfully, "It is towards the back of the shelter." He pointed in that general direction.

Gina picked up the top part of the uniform and pulled it over her head. She stretched a little and then sorted out her hair again.

He shook his head, and then made a brief attempt at a smile. "I did not find anything suspicious. Nonetheless, I would still suggest that we remain vigilant."

She nodded. "That seems like a good idea." She then realized that she had, quite rudely, been relaxing whilst Data did all the hard work. "Sorry, I should be doing something more productive. After all, we are still kind of on duty."

In agreement with her, Data nodded. He, too, had actually almost forgotten that they were still on duty. It certainly didn't really seem as though they were on duty. Gina then stood up and tried to make the shelter look a bit nicer. She fetched some stones and placed them around the entrance to the makeshift shelter.

"I fail to see the point of decorating the shelter," Data observed, with a slight frown.

Gina nodded, "I know, but, it's just something to pass the time. If we're going to be staying here for some time, then it should look nice, shouldn't it?"

Data smiled, to the best of his ability and then attempted to help Gina with her home decorating. Gina tried to order the flowers which he had handed over to her. They were of all different shapes, sizes and colours. She couldn't really decide if she should put them in order of species, or in order of colour. Eventually, though, she decided on placing them in a colour coordinated way.

"What do you think?" She asked Data as she stood back to look at her masterpiece, smiling.

He tilted his head to one side and replied, "It is… aesthetically pleasing."

Gina smiled. "It is." She walked over to Data and then said, putting her hand on his arm gently, "I could live here, I think."

He looked down at her. "It is certainly a change from my personal quarters on board the  _Enterprise_ ," he pointed out.

"Yes, but it's nice, isn't it?" She asked as she shifted her gaze, so that it was directed at him.

He nodded, but said nothing in response. He found the sensation of her touching his arm strange. It was peculiar. The last time a woman had touched him was when he and Tasha Yar had engaged in their unfortunate encounter in 2364. He tried not to consider that moment and managed to silence those thoughts.

"Life would be so much simpler without technology," Gina said dreamily. As soon as the words had left her mouth, her jaw dropped.

The android frowned and then said to her in a matter-of-fact voice, "But… I am a piece of technology."

"Oh," she said hastily. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that." She cursed herself under her breath quietly.

"So you did not mean that life would be simpler without… me?" He asked her again, just to be sure.

She shook her head and smiled. Gina looked up at Data; at his amber eyes and his golden face and, as she gently smoothed the discrete lines on his cheeks, said, "No, never. Never that."

Just after their lips had touched, Data felt something strange in the air. At first, he thought that it was because of her to proximity to him, but he soon realised that it was actually something much less pleasant. Data quietly said to Gina, "The patrol which we spotted earlier, I believe it is here."

She was horrified. She put her hands on his arms and said softly, the terror clearly evident in her facial expression, "They can't be."

Data shook his head slowly and then replied to her, "As unlikely as it seems, it is true."

"Well, then, where are they?" Gina asked as she craned her neck over his broad shoulders so that she could try and get a better view of their surroundings.

Data frowned and then said, a little perplexed, "I believe they are two hundred metres in that direction." He then pointed, as discreetly as possible, to the east. There were a lot more trees and shrubs in that general direction. There, the patrol would have a very good hiding place.

"I can't see anything, though," Gina said, as she knitted her brows.

"Neither can I, but, judging by the strange sounds which are originating from that bearing, I would say that the patrol is over there. Probably behind the tall ferns," he added as he looked at the overabundance of plants.

Gina felt her mouth wobble involuntarily and then said to him softly, "But, they can't see  _us_ can they?"

"I would not be so sure. The chances are that, if we can more or less see them—"

Gina finished his sentence, adding, "Then, they can see us."

He nodded, the apprehension clear on his normally expressionless face. "I suggest that we leave this place," he said.

She nodded and then put on her Starfleet regulation boots on and began to gather up the rest of her things. Data stood still, motionless, in an attempt to keep watch whilst Gina began to collect up her phaser, medical pack and tricorder. She also picked up Data's belongings and handed them over to him. He took them, smiling rather unconvincingly, and then said to her, in a lower register, "We should dismantle the shelter."

She sighed and Data could see that she was obviously upset. She had spent a lot of time putting that shelter together and had been quite proud of the subsequent end result. Nevertheless, she replied quietly, "Ok, I guess that makes sense." She then started to take off the many leaves which she had placed on the roof of the little shack. She made an attempt at lifting the large log which acted as a sort of pillar, but she couldn't manage to lift it. Data noticed how she was getting into a bit of bother, so he stepped in and took the large hunk of tree from her and placed it on the ground of the forest very gently, so as not to make any more noise than what was necessary.

She thanked him and then said, "Should we leave now, then?"

He nodded in agreement with her recommendation and then said, "That would be best." He began to walk as carefully as possible, with Gina following him closely. Gina hadn't been looking where she was going as much as she probably should have been, and so tripped up over a large upturned twig. Data managed to outstretch his hand just in time and Gina took it gratefully. From then on, she didn't let go of his hand, gripping it tightly. Data could get an idea of how nervous she was just by analysing the amount of pressure that she was putting on his hand. However, he didn't complain, so stayed quite.

"Data, did you see that?" Gina asked after an amount of time as she gestured to the far east of where

they were both headed at the moment.

He shook his head and replied, "I did not see anything, Gina." Then, he saw something out of the corner of his eye and said to her, "I did, however, see that."

"What?" She asked him for a clarification. "What did you see?"

However, before Data could even have given her the slightest chance at the most simple of replies, that thing which he saw came closer. He now had no doubt whatsoever that it was a patrol. It had to be. He stopped motionless in his tracks. Gina, being quite worried, asked him again, the urgency clearly detectable in her tone of voice, "Data, what is it?"

"Shhh," he said to her in a warning manner. "We are being watched."

She was so shocked and startled that she could barely even bring herself to say something in response to his observation. However, she managed to say, "Oh, I see it to. It is a patrol."

Data nodded and then replied, "It appears so. We should try and be as quick as possible."

She agreed with him and then said, in an apologetic tone of voice, "I'm sorry if I slow you down."

"Do not apologise," he said to her in a kind tone. "Your safety is my responsibility."

She smiled and they then continued on their trek through the dense forested area. After some time, Gina whispered to him, "How much longer do we have to carry on for?"

Data was about to say something to her in response, but then his thoughts were literally taken out of his head when he saw what he gathered to be the patrol. It was now less than twenty metres away from their current position. "I do not think we will have to continue."

"Why do you say that?" She asked nervously.

"The patrol is already here," he answered.

Gina looked around her and, sure enough, the Hypnite army patrol was ten metres away from them and was quickly advancing. "They've seen us."

"That appears to be the case."

Finding herself frozen to the spot, she took Data's hand and stood closer to him. She felt safer when she was with him. Her eyes were transfixed upon the patrol; the steady movement of a group of hover-vans and hover-cars traversing the forest. She wondered if they were looking for her and Data, or if they had stumbled across them by mistake. She shook her head. What was the point in thinking about that now?

The van at the back of the procession abruptly stopped and its engine ceased whirring. The other vehicles carried on, though. Gina couldn't help but wonder if those cars had prisoners in. whatever the case, this one would do soon.

Two figures clambered out of the front of the stationary van and stalked over to Data and Gina. The colour of their skin alarmed her; it unnerved her. But she was not scared. Curiosity led her to glance periodically over at Data. His skin was white, but theirs was somehow whiter. A disturbing thought crossed her mind: were they androids? But intelligence told her to forget that idea.

"This looks promising," one of the aliens muttered to his companion, who snorted.

"Sirs," Data began, stepping forward, leaving Gina standing moronically in the background. "I am Lieutenant Commander Data of the Federation starship  _Enterprise._ I am assume your intention is to take myself and my comrade hostage. If that is the case, then I must warn against that action."

They exchanged deeply amused – if a little confused – looks with one another. And then they burst out into a bitter laughing fit. The one who seemed like the leader nodded to the other. "Sikail, Shackle them."

He went for Data first, snatching the android's hands and holding them steadfastly behind his back. "In the van," he ordered bluntly, sneering. "You look like one of us, but you're not," he whispered. "Starfleet."

With Data safely in the back of the van, the one named Sikail seated himself in the driver's seat, while Gina was left standing, vaguely terrified, in the forest. But she commanded herself to be calm. She was in uniform, and she had worked so hard to earn that uniform. She would do it – and her captain and her ship – proud. She took a deep breath as the other Hypnite came over to her.

"Hold out your hands," he said, his tone of voice soft.

She did so, not wanting to cause a fuss and possible cause further trouble. "What do you want with us?" she asked, gathering up a surprising amount of courage.

As he bound her hands in the shackles, he grew rough suddenly. She recoiled in pain, and he laughed at her. Then he reached his hand up to touch her face, his fingertips brushing harshly across her cheek.

In the van, Data could hear her protests.

"I am Ensign Gina Monroe of the Starship..." she began, fighting to retain her composure as he moved closer.

"And I am Private Baleil," he said with a smirk. "Pleased to meet you." His eyes narrowed. "Now, in the van."

He pushed her along the woodland ground until they reached the back of the van, whereupon she was bundled into the vehicle.

The door was slammed shut and she and Data found themselves in darkness. "Data," she piped up after a while. "What do you think they'll do with us?"

In the darkness, he could see the whites of her eyes, and they were flecked with anxious tears. "I do not know, Gina." After a moment's silence, he murmured, "It would not be infeasible to break free of these handcuffs, however."

The grate that separated the prisoners from the captors suddenly rang with impact as one of the soldiers banged on it with his fist. "Oi, keep it down in there."

"This isn't right, you know," Gina muttered furiously.

The white face appeared behind the grate again. "Unless you want me to join you in the back, I suggest you shut it," he sneered.

When the grate had closed, Gina sighed.  _We won't be all right,_ she said to herself.

As if he had heard her lamentations, Data added simply, "We are in the middle of a war zone. I doubt our welfare will be desirable." He looked at her. "I do suggest you get some sleep, though."

She tried to. Data welcomed her as she leant her head on his shoulder, and she occasionally drifted off to sleep. But every now and then she would wake up, startled. Eventually, the whir of the hover-van's engine served to sing her to sleep. But the journey would be a long one.


	12. Closer and Further (Part I)

The crew of the mighty flagship of the Federation, the USS _Enterprise,_ was running extremely thin. It was actually closer to being something of a skeleton crew. This was because of the mysterious illness which was ripping through the ship at the moment. There were over one and a half thousand people, both crewmembers and civilians, who happened to call the Enterprise their home. However, now, their crew complement was only in the area of around a mere fifty crewmen. The rest of them had been taken down with the mysterious and confusing illness. Among those affected were Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge, Ensign Wesley Crusher and many other crewmembers, with the majority of them being in either the security or engineering divisions.

The main view screen of the _USS Enterprise_ flickered ever so slightly. The crewmembers who were actually on the bridge, which was quite severely understaffed, were all gripped with a mixture of feelings, such as suspense and worry and intense apprehension. And, an air of uncertainty seemed to fill the air. It was so very thick and abundant that it was very nearly essentially tangible.

The crew prepared themselves for the figures on the view screen to appear, and then, finally the monstrous screen flashed to some extent and then it finally turned on. The figure which appeared on the screen was one which they had seen before. And, it was not one which they had been wanting to be seeing anytime soon. However, they were grateful for the fact that this person on the other side of the video feed had decided to contact them.

"So," Commander Riker began carefully and tiredly. The illness which was presently sweeping the ship was surely beginning to take its toll on him. "President Jevail," he studied the expression of the alien man who was on the screen. His expression, however, gave nothing away. "I presume you have something important to tell us."

The pale-skinned president knitted his brows and then began to talk, doing so in his usual, droning and sharp tone of voice, "That is true, Commander." His white face then displayed an expression which Riker denoted to be something quite similar to confusion, but whether it was genuine or not, he couldn't really tell for sure. The president continued, with great condescension, "Where is the captain of this fine vessel, may I ask?"

At that very instant, Riker frowned. He knew that this man was almost definitely lying. Nevertheless, he figured that he probably shouldn't really aggravate this man, if necessary, so he simply and quietly said, "He is... missing."

"Well, then," the president said icily and rather slyly, "You had better find him." He paused to look Riker up and down, almost as if he were actually inspecting him, and then added, "It is hardly appropriate for someone as important as myself to be engaging in conversation with someone as lowly as yourself."

William Riker decided that it was best to let that rude comment slide past. "Yes, quite... We have sent out a patrol in search of Captain Picard," he said slowly, ensuring that the president got every single word of what he had just said.

Jevail grinned somewhat cunningly and then responded simply, and in a rather matter of fact tone of voice, "Have you? Well, you have my sincere goodwill that your search party is successful in their mission."

Riker couldn't help but frown, but he promptly managed to quickly erase it from his expression and then tried to transform his face so that it was more neutral; a poker face. "That was over a week ago," he said carefully.

"Oh, well, I am sure that you will find your dear captain soon."

Commander Riker nodded in sarcastic appreciation and then blurted out, not exactly thinking entirely straight, "Sir, I am asking you captain…" he then correct himself and said "… _Acting_ captain to President, have you any knowledge regarding the whereabouts of Captain Picard, or of Commander Data and Ensign Monroe?"

Through his bleached, uneven teeth, the president replied, grinning, "We have no knowledge about your android crewman and his…" he paused and then continued, with a sneer "…accomplice, however, we assure you that your captain is quite well indeed."

Instantly, Riker noticed Jevail's quite obvious blunder. There was no way he could tell that Data was an android, not unless he had studied him or just simply asked him. For, Data may not be exactly human, but he was close enough. He knew Starfleet regulations off by heart, he wouldn't possibly betray to the government of Hypnos fragile Federation information. And, Riker knew that that was the case. However, he didn't make any effort at informing Jevail of his mistake, and he, instead, just said kindly, "Thank you, Jevail."

"No, thank you, commander," the president said in mock kindness and then the screen went black.

However, Riker knew all that he needed to know.


	13. There Are Winners and Losers

Data looked over to his left and saw Gina Monroe lying across the other side of the darkened and dirty room. He gathered that they were inside some sort of prison cell, but there was no way that he could really be sure. It was too dark for him to be able to discern a lot of information from their gloomy surroundings. He searched his memory logs for anything which could offer him some sort of assistance regarding his current situation. However, and to his annoyance, he couldn't find anything that could prove to be of even the slightest bit of use.

"Ensign Monroe?" He called out in a quiet tone of voice. He looked at Ensign Monroe as she sat huddled up in one corner of the dingy cell. When he got no immediate response from her, he called out to her again and she finally opened her eyes.

Gina Monroe gasped as she tried to take in her new surroundings. "Data, are you here?" She called out to him very loudly.

He stood up and walked over to her. He was very surprised to find that he did not have any handcuffs on anymore. That, at least, gave him some amount of hope, however small. "I am here," he said softly.

She blinked and then looked up at him as he sat down beside her. "Where are we?" She asked slowly and worriedly.

"I do not know, however, I would assume that we are in some sort of prison," Data said as he, once again, took a look around the gloomy place in which they were. "It does look like a prison," he added.

Gina lifted her head up and added to his observation, "And smell like a prison." She tried to smile, but it broke almost before it had even had the chance to form.

"Indeed," Data concluded.

Sighing heavily, she said quietly, "We'll never get out of here."

"I would not be so sure, Gina," Data said in an attempt to try and comfort her. "If the Hypnites wished for us to be dead, then we almost certainly already would be. I assume that they want to keep us alive."

"What for?" She asked as she looked up and into his bright amber coloured eyes. They seemed to be the only source of light in the otherwise dingy room which they were in.

He shook his head and frowned slightly, saying, "That, I do not know, either."

Gina sniffed and she felt a tear fall from her eye. It was warm and wetter than usual. She tried to catch it with her hand, but she couldn't be bothered and so she let it cascade onto the greyish, murky stone floor of the cell.

"Eat this," the rough and sharp voice of the pale guard commanded as he thrust out two bowls of what looked like slop which was barely even fit to be fed to farm animals. The food was thick and creamy and looked almost as if it had already actually been digested. And, as quickly and as suddenly as the guard had opened the grate to give Data and Gina the two bowls, he had closed the grate again and they were once again left alone.

Data gingerly stepped forward and picked up the two bowls of slop and handed over one to Gina. She took it from him nervously and brought it up to her nose. She sniffed it tentatively and she had to admit, it smelt awful. It was truly revolting. "Ugh," she exclaimed as she rubbed her nose, almost feeling as though the smell was still stuck up her nostrils, "And they expect us to eat this?" It smelled worse than Cardassian taspar.

Data nodded and replied, "It appears so." He too, smelt the strange substance and couldn't help but agree with Gina, "It certainly smells… interesting."

She brought her lips to the edge of the bowl and gently swallowed a tiny mouthful of the nauseating slop. She shuddered as she felt the food slip down her throat and finally make its way into her stomach. She looked over at Data, who hadn't even touched his, so she asked him, "Aren't you going to eat yours?"

The android shook his head and then offered his meal to her, "I do not require this for sustenance. You, however, do."

She pushed it away from her and smiled, saying, "No, you need it too. I'm an engineer, Data, I know that you do have a need for food from time to time."

Slowly and rather reluctantly, Data nodded and then began to eat the simply disgusting meal. It certainly didn't taste or smell or even feel good, but it would certainly keep his strength up. He finished the whole bowl and when he looked over at Gina, he saw that she hadn't eat all of hers. "Gina, are you not going to eat all of your food? You need to keep you strength up."

"I know, I know," she agreed with him, nodding her head. "But, I'm not actually sure I can eat the rest of it. Every mouthful makes me want to gag. You can have it." She placed it in Data's lap and he then, grudgingly, finished it off.

Almost unaware that she was even doing it, Gina yawned. She put her hand over her mouth and sighed loudly. She rubbed her eyes a little and then drew her legs up underneath herself. She tried to get comfortable, resting her head against the stone wall, but it just wasn't going to work. She attempted to sleep whilst laying down on the rock hard and freezing cold floor, but she still couldn't get to sleep. She moaned in frustration.

Data, being sat beside her, noticed her discomfort. "Gina, you may lean against me, if that would improve your comfort."

She smiled. She just had to. "Thank you, Data," she said sweetly as she went into his arms and huddled up against him. She would never have expected him to be quite so… humanlike, but she was glad he was. Finally, she drifted off to sleep. 

She was woken up by the low, gruff voice of a guard. It said simply, "Eat this." He handed over some rather unappetising thick slop in a bowl to her.

But her attention now was not taken up by the disgusting food. She became aware of something far more pressing, something far more urgent, and something far more terrible. She could not see Data and she had not heard him leave. "Please, where is he?" she begged him. "Where's Commander Data?" She became more and more fretful. 

The guard sighed and responded to her quietly, "The robot man is otherwise engaged. He will return."

Just hearing that little comment from the guard gave her some amount of hope for Data. She knew he was going to come back. She hoped he was going to come back. He had to. He couldn't leave her there. And, although she knew that he wouldn't, not unless he had to anyway, she was still worried.

****

"I do not know anything which you are asking me to tell you," Lieutenant Commander Data told the two guards firmly as he stared at them both directly in their grimy faces.

One of the guards, who seemed to be only young, who looked like he had literally just come out of military school, stepped forward and said to the confused android in a rude tone of voice, "You do, we know you do."

Data shook his head and replied simply, "I do not possess any of the information which you say I do."

Now, the other guard, an older Hypnite soldier, stepped forward and said to Data, "No, no, no." He shook his head defiantly and then added, "I think you just don't want to tell us."

"I assure you," Data said carefully, watching what exactly it was that he said, "I do not know anything which you want to know."

"Yes, yes, you do," the first solider said and then he let out a rather derisive snort. Then, he looked over at the older soldier, as if asking him for something, for his appreciation or something, and the older solider nodded in response. Grinning widely, the soldier took a step closer towards Data and, once he was satisfied that he was close enough, swung his fist back and punched Data squarely in his face.

In response, Data only stumbled backwards. A little patch of his synthetic skin had become unloose and he reached up to try and put it back into place, but it just kept falling down loose. Then, the other guard walked over to him and threw a punch at him that was so very powerful, it sent Data almost flying backwards. The poor android gathered his strength and then looked at his hand. It was all battered from when he had tried to block the blow which the guard had delivered to him.

Now, it was the younger guard's turn to throw a punch at Data again. Taking great pride and pleasure as he did so, the guard stepped forward promptly and then kicked Data in the shin with an immense amount of force. Once again, Data stumbled backwards and reached down to inspect his leg. However, almost as soon as he had done so, he had the horrific sensation of something else happening to him. The elder guard, who was quite obviously not much more morally and ethically advanced than the younger one, had kicked him in the head whilst he was still bent down. It was cowardly, Data thought to himself, but, it had worked.

Satisfied with their 'work', the two guards went over to what Data perceived to be some sort of communications panel and said into it quietly, "The robot won't talk."

The voice who was on the other side of the comm link snarled out the words, "Well, then, we'll have to try something else, won't we?"

The two guards who were in the room with Data nodded gleefully and then the comm link shut off. They proceeded over to Data and then dragged him back to his cell.

The sight was a very sorry sight. The two heartless guards opened the cell door quickly and very indelicately and then simply threw Data inside the cell. He coughed, trying to drain out the fluid which was rapidly seeping into his throat.

Once she was absolutely sure that the guards had left, Gina crawled over to Data and instantly took pity on him. He was laying there, almost a shell of what he once was, motionless. The majority of the punches and blows had hit Data in his face, and Gina could definitely tell that just by looking at him, but a few had hit him in the chest. Gina traced her finger down his chest and found a small dent in it.

Data looked up at her and said to her, his voice slow and laboured, "That is a… minor concern."

"I don't know what to do," Gina admitted as she began to grow more and more worried. Every single time that she turned to look at Data, she noticed more and more things which were wrong with him. More and more injuries. Studying engineering at the Academy did not teach her how to heal an android.

Data replied calmly and quietly, not wanting to raise his voice, "Gina, I believe that I may be… haemorrhaging internally."

Gina gasped. She didn't have any medical experience, except for the very basics which she had learned whilst working for Starfleet. Nor, did she possess any knowledge about how to repair a haemorrhaging android. She was an engineer, but she felt as though dealing with this situation was definitely out of her league. "What do I do?" She asked him desperately.

Once again, Data coughed. Seeing how much discomfort he was in, Gina tried to turn him on his side so that he couldn't choke on the stray fluid. He was very heavy, but, with Data's assistance, she could just about manage it. He then thanked her and then continued to focus on the problem at hand. "The fluid which has now been allowed to exit my systems should decrease the severity of the haemorrhage," he said to her.

She managed to calm herself down and then asked quietly, "How do I stop it?"

"You need to stop the leakage," he said to her.

"How?" She asked him desperately. She then looked at Data's arm and saw that a considerable amount of synthetic skin had been torn away from its usual place. She knew enough about engineering to be confident in what she was about to do next. She reached into the open wound on his arm and carefully tore away a piece of wire. She uncoiled it and then delicately placed it around the tube of fluid which was leaking into some of Data's most vital systems. She tied it up and then covered it back up with the artificial skin again.

"Can you… can you sit up?" She asked Data, who had had his head laying in her lap whilst she had performed the 'operation'.

He nodded and then slowly sat up. As he did so, he almost fell back onto her and she caught him before he could fall. He looked at her and replied to her quietly, "Thank you."

****

Meanwhile, on board the _Enterprise,_ Doctor Beverly Crusher could not believe what she was seeing. She simply could not believe her eyes. At first, she did actually believe as though they were deceiving her. However, now, after realising that her eyes were not just simply playing tricks on her, she could do nothing but shake her head in disbelief. Pure and utter disbelief.

"What is it?" Nurse Ogawa asked reproachfully as she made her way over to the doctor, who was sat in the large, silvery, spacious office of the Chief Medical Officer. She walked over to Beverly Crusher and stood behind her. And, once she had fixed her view on the computer screen which the doctor was staring at with such intensity, she could understand why she was doing it.

Doctor Crusher looked over her shoulder with a brief, almost even nondescript, movement of her head so that she could see that Ogawa was behind her and, once she was sure that the nurse was listening intently, she pointed at the computer monitor. She then said, "This cannot be right."

Ogawa shook her head, not quite believing what she was seeing on the computer screen. "It certainly isn't," she said, almost in a daze.

"And, yet," Crusher decided as she exhaled deeply and loudly, "We cannot refute it. It's there." She then jabbed a finger at the screen. "And, it must be true."

Nurse Ogawa nodded and then said, "That does seem to be very likely. But…" she then found that she was, rather annoyingly, losing her train of thought at that moment. She, however, promptly managed to recover it and continued, "How can it be true?"

Beverly Crusher shook her head, almost exasperatedly. "I don't know, I really do not know."

"If… if the scans can't have been tampered with," the nurse began, before looking briefly over to her superior officer, to check if she was correct with her words.

Doctor Crusher nodded.

So, Ogawa continued, "Then, it has to be the truth. There is no question about it. However, it doesn't make any sense, it really doesn't."

Crusher nodded slowly, agreeing with Nurse Ogawa's every word. "Yes," she replied, "But… Oh…" she said, her expression becoming one which was much like glee or, indeed, joy "…I see now…"

Ogawa cocked her head to one side, evidently confused. She looked at the doctor and then back at the computer screen. All it showed to her was the plethora of different readings from the different crewmembers who had checked into sickbay, which was more than half of the Enterprise's entire crew complement. The readings were of all different sorts and types. Some were to do with blood, some relating to neural pathways, but one, one in particular caught Ogawa's eye. That particular reading was the reading which showed them the rate of external cell growth in the different crewmembers. "Oh," Ogawa began slowly, "I see it too."

Beverly nodded, happily, and then ordered the computer to focus in on the reading of cell growth and she stared, even more intently than she had been doing earlier on. It was now even clearer to both her and nurse Ogawa.

"Those readings must be wrong," Ogawa said, trying to dismiss what she saw.

Doctor Beverly crusher nodded again. "That's what I thought, but they're not that odd. The cells are growing at an abnormal rate, yes," she decided.

"But," Ogawa added, "They're growing respective to their environment. Which is swamped with radiation!"

"Precisely!" Beverly crusher exclaimed as she almost very nearly leapt out of her chair. "It's the radiation from the star!"

"That's what's causing the illness!"

A sigh of both relief and joy crept across the faces of the doctor and the nurse.

****

When Starfleet Ensign Gina Monroe next opened her eyes, she was greeted with a relieving sight. It was Lieutenant Commander Data. He was looking down at her, almost like some sort of guardian angel. She had never even dared to think that he could be so gentle, so kind and so… human. However, now, she had realized that her earlier prejudice against him had been very wrong and very unnecessary. He was one of the nicest people she had ever met, even though he wasn't really a person.

The cell was cramped and it was dirty. The bed had basically all rotten away. There was pretty much none of it left. Gina didn't dare even perch herself on the edge of it, for fear that it may very well give way beneath her and she would land hard onto the cold, damp, stone floor. So, for the past few days whilst she and Data had been cooped up in this awful place, she and he had had to sleep on the floor. Of course, Data never actually 'slept', he just sat there while she tried to fall asleep in his arms. Which, actually, and quite surprising to her, wasn't really all that hard to do.

Gina's eyes flickered in response to the stinging sensation that the air of the cell provided. They were inside some sort of building, but still, the polluted air from outside was so very strong, dense and thick that it managed to, somehow, crawl through all the tiny little cracks in the walls, and through the floor and ventilation facilities. There were hardly any windows, only one absolutely miniscule one which was situated at the top of their cell. It was over seven feet up and neither Gina nor even Data could reach it.

To her surprise, and slight annoyance, Gina coughed. And, when she coughed, her eyes shut for an inordinate amount of time and she, for one brief yet scary moment, she had almost forgotten where she was. When she opened her eyes, the room seemed to be, for lack of a better word, spinning. She called out to the only person who she knew could keep her safe, "Data?" It wasn't entirely necessary for her to call out quite as loudly as she had, as she was resting in his arms and could basically even hear her breathing.

"Yes, Gina?" He asked her. He could sense, just by her quiet and worried tone of voice that there was something that was troubling with her.

Once again, she coughed. "I think I've got a cold," she said as she sniffed a little.

He cocked his head to one side slightly, raised a quizzical eyebrow and then asked her, "A cold what?"

"No, it's just called a cold," Gina said softly, correcting him kindly.

His eyes momentarily flickered back and forth as he consulted his memory banks and then he said, once he had located and opened the appropriate file, "That disease has not existed for two centuries."

She nodded and then shivered a little, and responded "I know, but, I think I have one."

He frowned and then said, "Do you require any assistance?" He wasn't entirely sure what he should ask, so her just decided on asking what he thought would be an acceptable question.

"No, I think I'll be fine. It should clear up in a few days," she said, trying not to cause him unnecessary worry.

However, the next time she coughed, when she drew her hand back from her mouth, there was blood. She shuddered at the very sight of it. It was simply horrific. Data saw this happen and said to her in a stern tone of voice, "Gina, you require assistance."

She shook her head, "No, no, don't worry. I'll be—"she stopped talking so that she could allow another heavy and loud cough to exit her system, and then finally managed to continue "—fine."

"That was not very convincing, Gina," Data said reproachfully.

Then, Gina felt Data shift his weight and she turned to ask him, a confused expression on her face, "Data, where are you going?" It was almost a ridiculous question. They were in a prison cell, so, there was basically nowhere for them to go. The only place they could go was to the bathroom, and, even then, they had to be ferried there and even, to Gina's complete and utter disdain, watched, by the stoic looking guards. That memory would not be erased from her frantic mind any time soon. Their leering laughter... Their hands... Their piercing emotionless eyes.

He turned around to face her once he stopped by the large and rather grimy door of the cell. He replied to her simply, "I am going to get help. You are ill."

"I'll be fine," she said slowly. She tried to convince him not to go through with it, but she groaned involuntarily. She winced in the pain which her stomach was now giving her and clutched it, reluctantly.

Data frowned and then called out to one of the guards who happened to be sauntering by, "Sir, please…"

The guard stopped his slow and measured stroll, which was almost as if he was taking a walk in the park, and then turned to face Data, "What do you want?" He asked him rudely.

Still, somehow, managing to keep his polite tone of voice, the android replied quietly, "Ensign Monroe, she is hurt. You must help her."

The guard scoffed and began to walk away. But, Data stopped him and gripped his arm, managing to poke it through the thickly meshed door. He said to him, almost begging him, "Please, sir. She is gravely ill."

The guard did not really respond.

Then, Data knew that he had do something. He had to try something else. Gina's life depended on it. So, he said to the guard carefully and sternly, "Your superior would not be pleased if Gina becomes so ill that she will not be of any…" he searched his positronic brain for what he believed to be the correct word to use "…use to him."

Finally, the guard seemed to see sense. He nodded and replied to Data in a gruff tone of voice, "I will see what I can do. I will tell General Markeil."

Data smiled briefly and then thanked the guard in a tone of voice which was perhaps too friendly and appreciative. He then made his way back over to Ensign Monroe, who was now shivering violently and had a temperature.

She looked up into his amber eyes and asked him softly, "What is wrong with me?"

Data shook his head, quite obviously annoyed with himself for not knowing the real answer to her question. "I do not know. However, I suspect it is something to do with these conditions," he said as he looked around the cell with a disapproving look on his golden face.

She held out her slender and pale hand and Data noticed it. He placed his hand in hers and looked at her. She looked back at him and said to him gently, "I'll be ok won't I?"

"I… hope so," Data replied, as he looked at her, the concern he was feeling deeply etched into his face.

Gina coughed again and more blood came out. She clutched her stomach, in fear that it might actually fly out of her mouth, however unlikely it seemed. "When will the doctors come, do you think?" She asked him, almost slipping out of consciousness.

"The guard did not say when. He just said that he would alert his senior officer," Data replied to her.

"They had better come soon," she muttered softly, whimpering in pain, as she curled up against the wall.

The man who entered the filthy room had very pale white skin. He strolled around the cell with his arms draped behind his back. When he entered, Data instantly walked over to him and said to him rather cautiously, "I presume you are the senior officer here?"

The pale man nodded and then pushed Data out of his way. Data just stumbled backwards ever so slightly, more confused than injured by the rude man's gesture. The alien man bent down in front of Gina and studied her intently, almost scrutinizing her. He elicited short, sharp tutting sounds from his mouth as he did so, shaking his head in smooth, deliberate, measured movements.

Gina managed to gather up enough strengths to croak out the hopeful question, "Are you… Are you the… doctor?"

He shook his head and smiled slyly. "Do I look like a doctor to you?"

Gina didn't say anything in response to him. She couldn't be bothered to.

The man continued, "What's wrong with you then?"

"I don't know," Gina replied exasperatedly. "Where is the doctor? Do you not have a medical team?" She asked him as she scanned him up and down. If he had made an effort, and not even a very big one, he would have been quite a handsome man. But, he looked as though he hadn't washed for quite some time and Gina could smell something gross on his breath. It hung in the air even after he had closed his foul mouth.

"So what, you're not dying are you?" He asked as he snorted derisively.

She tried to drag herself up against the wall, but she was too tired and too ill to do so. "Where is the doctor?" She pressed the question.

"There is no doctor," he stated simply, obviously taking pleasure from her newly saddened expression.

"Why… why are you here, then?" Gina choked out the strained question.

"Why, to inspect the merchandise, of course," he said as he grinned rather widely and unpleasantly.

Then, she realised what he had meant by that and inside her head, she almost screamed.

He reached his hand up and touched her cheek gently. "You have beautiful eyes," he muttered as he stared into them.

"Get off me," she said through gritted teeth.

Data took a nervous and measured step forward, obviously and quite understandably not wanting the conversation between General Markeil and Gina to carry on to any further extent. However, the concerned android was promptly shoved back into place when two rather tough looking guards drew out their phasers. That preliminary warning was more than enough for him. And so, reluctantly, he stepped back into his original position. Although, he had to remind himself, he could at least see what Markeil was doing from his current location.

The general was so close that Gina could almost feel his rather unsavoury breath down her neck. She shuddered at the very thought of him coming even closer. Luckily though, he quickly came up onto his feet and was just about to leave the cell when Data came over to him and asked him, "What about Gina? She is still ill."

The general seemed to ignore his plea and went over to one of his guards. The guard then, albeit, rather reluctantly, handed over what looked somewhat like a hypospray to him. Markeil tossed it to Data, who caught it with only a slight fumble. Just before he left, Markeil grinned widely at Gina as she cowered in the gloomy and filthy corner.

Once Markeil and that two guards had left and the door had been closed firmly, Data walked briskly over to Gina. She was no almost fitting. Data reached up and placed the back of his hand to her forehead, which was basically red-hot. "You have a fever," he told her.

She groaned in pain and frustration and then coughed again uncontrollably.

Data showed her the hypospray-looking object and said to her gently, "Markeil told me to give this to you."

"Will it…" her eyes almost rolled back into her head "…Will it make me better?" She asked him.

He sighed ever so slightly and then said to her, "Can you pull your collar down?"

She complied and then Data located the jugular vein in her neck. He aimed the medical device just to the left of it and then injected the mysterious substance. There was, of course, every possibility that Markeil had been lying. This substance could be slowly killing Gina. However, Data highly doubted this because the general seemed to have such a high fascination with Gina, even if it seemed to be of the amoral kind.

Slowly, Gina's eyes began to flutter. She clenched her stomach tightly and moaned.

"What is wrong?" Asked Data nervously. "Is the injection not effective?"

She sighed and managed to just about shake her head. "I don't… I don't…" she trailed off. Data saw how helpless she was and did what she had done when she had helped him, he took her hand and held it tightly, but being very careful not to squeeze it too forcefully. She looked up at him and smiled. It was a warm smile. A friendly smile. And, a thankful smile. Then, Data did something which he only very rarely did, he smiled back.

Gina noticed this and said wearily, "You smiled. Why?"

"In my years of serving and living amongst humans, I have learned that to smile is a natural human reflex. It is often employed for numerous reasons. Reasons such as hope, friendship, forgiveness, anxiety, love—"

Gina cut him off by placing her finger to his lips, and, as she drew it away, she said to him gently, "Never mind, never mind."

He nodded in agreement and then simply sat there. He counted the parts of moss which covered so much of the cell walls. There were around fifty seven. He then counted the number of drips of water which he heard during the long night. The total number came to about two thousand, five hundred.


	14. A Stranger

The guards certainly did not mean to make their entrance unknown. As they opened the large, grimy, grey prison cell door, many awful sounds were heard. Gina and Data could hear the spine-tingling and horrendous screams for help coming from the other prisoners. They could hear the solemn and slow footsteps of the other guards who were obviously out on patrol in the prison area. The noises that the door itself made were also quite foreboding. They almost seemed to penetrate Gina's eardrums. There was the scraping of the bolt and the sliding of the monolithic door and then, there were the horrible cackling voices of the guards.

The two guards walked in. And, once they had done so, Gina saw something in Data's face. It wasn't exactly fear, nor was it apprehension. She wasn't quite sure what it was, to be perfectly honest. She looked the android in the eye and asked him gently, "Data, what is it?"

Data tried not to make her worry about him. "There is no need for you to worry, Gina," he told her firmly.

However, Gina was not buying his excuse for one moment. "Data, just tell me. What is it?"

He took another glance up at the two guards and then revealed to her, "They are the guards who…" he stopped, unsure of how to continue, and then he gestured to his still injured arm "…did this to me."

She wasn't angry, but she was furious. She was upset at how those two people could do something that horrible to Data. He had no quarrel with anyone whatsoever. He would never hurt anyone, unless it was absolutely necessary to do so. She wanted to punish the guards for what they had done to him. But, she knew that she wouldn't get very far with that, so she managed to, with great difficulty, refrain herself from doing so. She put her hand on his injured arm and tried to gently smooth away the synthetic skin.

Data looked up at her and said to her softly, "Do not worry about me, Gina. I am fine."

She tried to smile but really couldn't, try as she might.

Then, the guards had had enough of watching Gina and Data talk about what were, in their minds, such trivial things and they made their presence known. They proceeded towards the two Federation prisoners. "We need the girl," one said in a rather matter of fact tone of voice. He scrutinized her appearance. She was dirty and scruffy and malnourished, but, otherwise, she was as healthy as one could be if they were in her situation.

Data held her hand tightly.

Gina looked at him and tried to reassure him. "I will be fine, I promise."

The guard then literally yanked Gina to her feet and she was led out of the cell, with one guard in front of her and one guard behind her.

Gina was led down a dark and dingy corridor. It was very cold although the smell was not as bad as it was in her cell. She, at least, had that to be thankful for.

The walk away from the cell was not that much of a long one. She wasn't entirely sure where it was that she was meant to be going, in fact, she had no idea whatsoever. Every now and then, she would slow her pace just a little and, in response to that, the guard behind her would jab her hard in the back with what she correctly assumed to be a gun. Not wanting to die anytime soon, she promptly quickened her pace, although she was really too tired and too weak to do so.

Soon, she gathered that they had arrived at their destination. They had gone up many steps and had even been outside at one point. Then, they stopped once they had reached a large door. It was better looking than the door of her cell. Much better looking. It was in a better condition and seemed to have been cleaned rather painstakingly well. Outside the door, there was a communications panel, not all that dissimilar to the comm panels that Gina was used to seeing all the time outside personal quarters and other rooms on the starship Enterprise.

The elder guard pressed the comm panel and spoke into it loudly, but also somehow cautiously, "Sir, we have your woman."

On the other side of the conversation, a voice spoke out the command, "You may enter." And, as soon as he had said those words, Gina realized that she had recognised that voice, although, she wasn't entirely sure where she had heard it before.

The door slid open, obeying the man on the other side's command and the two guards almost had to drag Gina into the room. It decorated with ornate furnishings but, in spite of the fact that it looked a little archaic and old-fashioned, it was equipped with some state of the art things. There was, in one corner, what Gina decided to be a food replicator. There were windows also in the room, and they let in as much light as was possible in such a dark place, and that meant barely any light could get in. The artificial lights inside the room were on, but obviously not to full capacity.

The guards shoved Gina into the room and then the dark figure in the corner, whom Gina recognised the voice of, said simply and loudly, "Leave us."

The guards bowed and then quickly left. It seemed as though they were almost actually, rather strangely, scared of this man.

The man, once the guards had left, sauntered over to Gina and said to her in a mock tone of kindness, "How are you, my dear?" He reached his hand up to her face to stroke it.

Gina, almost instinctively, flinched and the man had no choice but to put his hand down by her side.

"What is wrong, my dear?" The man asked as he studied her closely and virtually intimately.

"I would like you to… stop calling me 'my dear'," she said, through gritted teeth and trying very hard not to slap him right at that moment.

He sighed heavily and then said, "As you wish." He sat down and then said to her, as kindly as he could manage to, "What is it you want? Anything you wish, but, please," he scanned her closely, "Don't ask for freedom or to be treated better. You will get what you're given."

She moaned and then said to him politely, "I would much appreciate it if you could turn the lights up, I can't see very well."

"Oh," he said rather theatrically, "What an excellent idea!" He paused, undoubtedly for effect, and then boomed, "Increase light intensity to seventy percent."

And, almost instantly, the brightness of the room escalated quite considerably. Gina could not help but to mutter to herself, "You're General Markeil." Her face contorted when she remembered who this man was. She stepped backwards, into a wall, when he came closer. She followed his hand; it moved to touch her face and he tilted her head from side to side, as if inspecting her. She tried to squirm free from his grip, but he was too strong, so she gave up. "Let me go," she demanded plainly.

He grinned, showing the sharp bones in his face. "Now, why would I want to do that?" He asked her theatrically.

She broke free from him, only to have him continue to examine her. She had no way to answer him. At last, he took a step back and the shadows of the room fell away from his face.

Now, she could see that he was quite obviously the same person who had given Data the cure to her strange illness; but, he was somehow different. He looked cleaner and was almost, somehow… attractive. His dark hair was in much better shape than it had been before; not greasy. It was reasonably long and reached his shoulders. She noticed how bright his eyes were; as blue as the seas of Risa. His breath was much more pleasant. His fingers were manicured almost expertly and his skin was much more radiant. It was the palest shade of white. It was his cheekbones which caught her eye. They were so defined; it was disturbing. He was handsome, she could not deny that.

She gathered that he was only a young man. He was, perhaps, only a few years older than her. However, Gina didn't really take this as a good thing, she realised that, if this man was younger, he would not be as wise and as thoughtful as an older person would be. Young men were rash and didn't often think before acting.

He had heard her comment and so replied, "Yes, indeed I am." He looked at her and then said to her softly, "Please, do not be afraid. Sit down." It did not sound like a command, which surprised Gina greatly.

Not wanting to get on the wrong side of him, Gina sat down carefully on the couch.

"So," he began slowly, "Why are you here? You are not of this world, are you?" He studied her complexion. She did not have white skin, like all other Hypnites did. Nor, did she had green skin, which was symbolic of every Thanatosian. She had peach coloured skin. She didn't look like any species he had ever seen. "You're not a Hypnite, or a Thanatosian," he mused.

She nodded tiredly, wanting him to get to the point. "What does it matter? I'm to be your... comfort woman, aren't I?" She knew what being a comfort woman meant. Her friend lived on Bajor during the Occupation. Her Cardassian master was called Damar. He was nice enough, but Gina knew that her friend had been lucky.

Every time she saw Markeil's eyes on her, she unwittingly twitched and her skin tingled all over. "Look, what are you going to do to me?" She finally asked.

He shook his head and she couldn't read his expression. Whether it was surprise, pity or amusement, though, she could not tell. "My dear, I am not going to do anything. I have no intention of harming you."

She raised her eyebrows and fell silent; confused and alarmed.

He continued his guessing game. "You don't have any arched eyebrows and you don't seem to be boring, so I'm sure you're not Vulcan or Romulan. Your forehead is smooth, so you're definitely not a Klingon. Thank the heavens."

"I am Ensign Gina Monroe of the starship Enterprise," she said proudly, trying not to look him in the eyes. Those electric blue eyes.

"You are from the Federation," he said, without thinking. "You are a spy."

She shook her head quickly. "No, no, I am not a spy."

"Then, why are you here?" He asked her strongly.

Because you captured me, she felt like saying. She knew that there was probably no point in lying, so she just told him the complete truth. "I was sent here, along with a crewmate of mine, to find the captain of our vessel."

"I take it your search has not been successful," he mused, smiling too widely than was really needed.

Gina shook her head and then said, trying very hard to control her rage and confusion, "No, we have not found Captain Picard. He has been taken prisoner," she hazarded a guess at the last sentence. Although, deep inside of her mind, she knew that it just had to be the truth. There was nothing else that could have happened to him. The captain was just too intelligent and careful. It wasn't like Jean-Luc Picard to get lost.

"Ah," he said, wide-eyed and quite appreciatively, "You are clever."

She smiled, half-sarcastically and also half-gratefully. "What do you want with me?" She asked him the question which had been hiding at the back of her eager mind.

He didn't really reply straight away. Instead, he changed the subject entirely, and began to talk about something else. "Your…" he stopped in his tracks, wondering what to call the man who had been apprehended with her "… accomplice… he is not human."

"He is not my 'accomplice'" She muttered wearily.

He uncrossed his legs, folded his arms and then leaned forward in his chair. "Well, then, if he isn't your accomplice, what is he?"

"He is my colleague…" she replied. Then, she remembered how close she and Data had grown during their time on this godforsaken planet together and she added, "He is my friend."

"How quaint," he mumbled. "He can't be the same species as you," he stated.

"I know," she said.

"He is not a Thanatosian, either," he added. "If it weren't for those creepy gold eyes, then I would have labelled him as one of my kind. No Hypnite has gold coloured eyes." That comment reminded Gina of his blue eyes and she looked at them, shivering.

She nodded and responded, "He is not."

"Well, then, what species is he?" He asked. "My guards informed me of some weird things that happened when they…" his mouth drew into a sly sneer "… questioned him."

She was so furious that she really couldn't contain it any longer. "You mean when you tortured him."

He, however, seemed relatively unfazed and he just waved off her interruption, completely disregarding it. "Is he a cyborg? A robot? Well, whatever he is, he must be extremely strong. My guards barely even made a dent on him."

"They broke him!" She yelled. "He haemorrhaged! I'm surprised he's even still alive."

"Whatever," he said, again waving off her concern as if it were simply petty. "It doesn't matter anymore. However, what does matter, is what he is."

"He is an android," she said bluntly, seeing that there was clearly no point in keeping the facts from him. "The only one of his kind in Starfleet."

"How interesting," he muttered. "However, you seem quite attached to this… this… mechanical man," he said. Gina wasn't quite sure what it was that she heard, but it was almost like jealousy. Why could he possibly be jealous?

She nodded and replied simply, with a straight face, "He is my superior officer. It is my duty to serve him and protect him. And… he is my friend. Of course I am 'attached' to him."

"No, no," he said, shaking her head and not believing it for a minute. "There is more to it than that." Then, without warning, he clapped his hands and rubbed them together briskly, as if they were cold. "No matter," he said.

"What do you want with me?" she demanded again.

After standing up, he gestured to a piece of clothing which was draped across the back of a rather ornate looking, yet somehow modern chair.

Gina frowned and asked him, "What do you want me to do with it?"

He smiled, and it wasn't completely obvious to her if it was actually genuine or not. "I want you to wear it," he stated to her.

"Well, I won't," she said defiantly as she crossed her arms.

"Oh," he said as he walked over to her, "You will."

Gina felt the cool air whoosh past her as he came towards her. His cheekbones were so prominent, it was almost ghostly. His eerily blue eyes pierced into her and she reluctantly agreed.

She moaned under her breath and then made her way over to the location in the room where the piece of clothing was. She unravelled it and neatened it out a little and stared at it. It was beautiful, but also repellent. She couldn't help but wonder how many women had worn the dress before her and what had happened to her afterwards.

"But, first," he said, walking over to her with his finger raised, almost as if he were scolding her, "You are to wash."

She frowned and then she saw him point to a small door towards the back of the room. He ordered the door to open, and it swiftly did so. She could now see that it was much like a bathroom, so she stepped in and began to clean herself up.


	15. Reflecting

Ensign Gina Monroe was stood in front of the mirror. As she studied herself in the mirror, which was actually rather bland, she wasn't really sure if the person she saw was her. Markeil had asked her, not even ordered her, to have her hair done nicely. And so, she had had her hair partially tied up, while allowing the rest of it to cascade serenely down her back.

For at least two weeks, she and Data had been wandering around the basically deserted wasteland which was Hypnos, with no real place to go. They had no home and no luxury and had to try and scrape some sort of menial living as they went by, scouring the broken world for things which could be of use. She had to admit though, the first night that she and Data had spent together was actually more or less fun. He had gone out to find some food for them to keep their strength up and had returned with a very delicious fish.

Even though, on the day when their shuttlecraft crashed, she had dislocated her shoulder and sprained her ankle, she had felt almost fine. Maybe, she thought to herself, for perhaps the billionth time, it was because of the fact that Data was there with her that she had managed to feel so calm. Normally, she knew that she would have been most probably terrified. However, during those days, she had not been.

The closest she had actually come to being truly scared was when the obnoxious and rude guards had returned Data to their squalid prison cell when he was basically almost dead. It was then that she realised how… human he really was. And also, how much she had depended on him to keep her safe. He had fixed her shoulder, he had saved her from falling off a cliff, he had made sure that she was fed properly and looked after and, he had kept her warm and safe.

She, for the first time since she and Data had set off on their mission, was wearing makeup. She was glad, in a way, because it almost seemed to cover up the bruises and scrapes which she had received from her trek across the rocky and deserted wastelands of the planet Hypnos. However, it also made it harder for her to remember Data. It had only been about a day or two, at the most, since she was literally dragged away from him and brought to the general's quarters. Nevertheless, she did not want to forget him.

She stared at her reflection even closer in the mirror. She reached up and smoothed her hair down past her shoulders and turned around briefly so she could see the whole of the dress which Markeil had told her to wear. It was cut provocatively low down the back, but, was otherwise actually quite tasteful. She liked it, but it was unnecessarily high on the legs and was so silky that it almost seemed to glide around her.

It was then that she noticed that now, no smell was hanging around in the air. She had tried to wash whenever it were possible to do so when she and Data had been wandering around on the planet. However, the stench from the cell had basically clung to her skin and she had to literally scrape it out of her flesh. However, Data, not being a purely organic being, did not smell like she did. He still smelled of the Starfleet uniform, more or less, and a little bit damp. Now, though, she realised that she smelt nice. The dress carried with it a powerfully strong and almost nauseating but somehow pleasant odour.

Suddenly, a voice sounded through the communications panel and she recognised it as belonging to Markeil. "Are you not ready yet?" He asked her.

She didn't reply but pressed a command button on the panel and the door to the room slid open and she walked out.

Markeil stood there, simply stunned. He found himself basically lost for words, for once in his life. He was unsure as to what to do, or, indeed, what to say. "Of all the comfort women I have had, none have been quite as stunning as you, my dear," he stated, grinning appreciatively.

When he uttered the words, it finally hit home. She had expected it to be so, but now the realisations associated with it came pouring down on her.

He stood close to her and held her face in his cold hands.

She tried to wriggle out of his grip, but she couldn't be bothered. "I don't want to be your comfort woman," she said bluntly.

"I want you to be," he said straightforwardly. "You interest me, greatly."

Gina stayed quiet.

He shook his head slightly and smiled. "You show so much endurance and determination," he replied, honestly. "The females of Hypnos possess no such qualities."

"Markeil," she began as softly as she could, "I don't want to be your comfort woman. Why can't you see that?"

He sighed heavily and deeply and then took his hands away from her face. "I am lonely, Gina," he admitted.

She scoffed. Was she supposed to sympathise?! "You're not lonely!" She retorted. She didn't know how someone as striking as him could be lonely. He may be rude, obnoxious and arrogant, but she knew there was good in him. "I read a book once," she said, drifting off topic a little. "You are like one of the characters." She thought, perhaps, if she got him distracted enough, he would lower his guard.

He raised an eyebrow. "I am listening." None of his comfort women had ever been this talkative, either.

"His name was Mr Darcy. He was just like you, though, he didn't execute people and have comfort women," she responded. "Just like you though, he was rude."

"I am not rude," he retorted.

"You are. I have barely known you for half a day and I can already tell," she answered back. "You are arrogant and condescending."

He shook his head. "And, was this Mr Darcy lonely?"

"Until he got married in the last few pages," she replied. "Anyway, that's not the point!"

He chuckled at her likening him to some sort of fictional character and said, "Regardless. I am alone, no matter how many times you choose to deny that."

She stepped away from him slightly. She shook her head. "You're not. And, if you are, then you only have yourself to blame."

He looked injured. Gina guessed that she had finally broken through his tough exterior. "No, no," he said, "I am."

"Then, why do you imprison so many people?" She asked him, her eyes widened with the immense curiosity.

"Because I have to" he said slowly.

"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" She shook her head and snorted derisively, saying, "You don't have to do anything."

"I do. I follow orders from another."

"Who?" She asked, listening intently.

He turned around to take a glance around the luxurious room and then turned back around to face her and he replied quietly, "From the president."

"Oh," she replied. "We had the… um… pleasure of meeting him via view screen on our ship," she said slowly.

He laughed and said to her, "You are very funny. How strange."

"What do you want me to do for you, then?" She asked him impatiently. "What do you need me for?"

"As I have said, I am lonely. All high ranking officers in the Hypnite army are allowed to have comfort women, it is somewhat of a tradition."

She shook her head and furrowed her brow. "How is it a tradition? It's no better than slavery!"

"No, all comfort women are treated well," he said. He then quickly amended his statement, "Well, not all of them. However, my comfort women have always been treated well."

"The Cardassians do it too," she murmured.

He nodded. "I know. When we traded with the Cardassian Empire centuries ago, they introduced us to this… custom."

"Why am I dressed like this?" She asked him as she glanced down at the excessively beautiful dress which she was wearing.

"Because, quite frankly, you did not look nor smell too good when you arrived," he said bluntly.

She frowned at him. Neither did you when you came to my cell and almost let me die! she wanted to say.

He then continued, "It's indeed a wonder that that man you shared your cell with doesn't smell the same." Then, he puckered his brow, realizing his mistake. "Oh, no, I don't suppose he's capable of it, is he?" He chuckled quietly to himself.

Letting that comment slip Gina said to him, "You said 'shared', why?"

"Because it is in the past tense," he replied logically.

"You mean, I am not going back there?" She asked him.

He smiled with glee, saying, "That is correct." He looked at her glum and confused expression and then asked her gingerly, "Why? Aren't you pleased?"

"Should I be?" She demanded.

"I had thought you would be. I have saved you from that godforsaken pit. I have given you food and clothes and a place to sleep—"

She cut him off angrily, "Yes! In your bed, no doubt! "

"Now, now," he said slowly and rather warningly. "I've done nothing, have I?"

She couldn't deny it.

"So, you're telling me that you would rather spend the rest of your life in that cell, with that annoying… man?"

She ignored his insult about Data. "If it means I can keep my dignity, then yes, I would rather stay there."

He didn't understand how that was dignity. She would be living in a dirty cell, had it not been for him. He sighed, clearly annoyed and a little perplexed with her response. "No matter, that is not the point. You are staying here with me."

She didn't know what to do. She wasn't sure whether to cry or to just slap him. She wanted Data with her, but she knew that that was not going to happen any time soon. "Markeil," she said sternly as she placed his hand gently on his chest, "I do not want to stay here. Why can't you understand?"

"I do understand," he said, defending himself. "But, still, I want companionship. I want love."

"I can't give that to you," she said softly.

"Why?" He asked her. "Why?"

She shook her head and frowned. "Because, I can't. Love isn't meant to happen like this, Markeil."

Markeil sighed and said to her, "We have to go now."

"What, why?" She asked.

"There is a… social event," he said.

"A what?" She asked, confused a little.

"A social gathering."

She frowned. "But, why do I have to come?"

"Because I want you to." He then rephrased it, saying, instead, "Because… I would like you to."


	16. Getting to Know the Locals

The room was large and chatter filled the air. People were conversing about a range of different topics. Some were geared towards the more dark issues of life, such as how the war with the Thanatosians was progressing at the moment. Some conversations were about more cheerful and less important things, such as how nice the food was and what sort of wine was the best. Also, some people, although only a very small percentage of those present in the room, were talking about more philosophical and more ethical things, like the dreary and basically inhumane state of the prisons and camps which were now dotted across the surface of Hypnos.

When General Markeil entered the room, all eyes turned to face him. That, he had expected to happen, as he was the most senior officer in that facility. He was something of a legend. He was the youngest Hypnite ever to be in the government and, in addition to that great feat, he was also the youngest in history to exercise supreme command over a prison complex. This gave him enormous pleasure. However, when the other people in the room realized that he was not entering the room alone, they saw that a woman was on his arm. And, she was not from Hypnos. She did not have white skin, it was more of an odd peach colour. They weren't sure how to react.

"Everyone is staring," Gina muttered nervously.

Markeil chuckled and his jaw tightened, even more than usual. He looked down at her. "They are only interested. Humans don't usually come our way."

Gina scowled. That sounded like an insult.

He took her hand and she tried to break free from his grasp. "You want people to stop staring, don't you?" He asked, as he kept his grip on her hand.

She looked up guiltily and nodded. So, she stopped struggling and let him hold her hand. Markeil's technique to get the crowd from staring at their entrance didn't seem to be working.

It was almost as if Markeil could read Gina's thoughts; he knew she was still alarmed by the amount of beady eyes being directed at them. He slowed his pace, and Gina, holding his hand, had to too. He kissed her on the cheek and she instantly drew away in confusion and discomfort.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed.

"Convincing them. They will not stare if you look happy," he replied logically.

Though, Gina could not see the logic in his argument. Exactly how far is this going to go? she thought to herself. "And this is supposed to make me happy?" She asked him.

He held her close. "It will make them think that," he said, shrugging. Their faces were close, with his arm around her waist. She was drawn to him, and not by choice. She begrudgingly let him kiss her on the lips and then instantly hung back.

A group of Hypnite nobles and such were close by. They gathered around her. Gina felt uncomfortable; they seemed to be inspecting her. Markeil looked behind him and noticed that he had lost Gina. He craned his neck over the sea of heads, though he was tall, so didn't need to stretch much. He caught sight of Gina's dark hair. It easily stood out against the plethora of pale faces. He pushed his way through the crowd and found her. He heard the nobles leering at her and walked over to one. Markeil looked down his nose at him. "Now, if you want to keep your head, I suggest you leave her alone," he snorted.

The Hypnite stepped away and gave his friends an amused look as they walked away. To Gina's surprise and despair, the noble who had been intimidated by Markeil returned to a woman. She gathered that they were married. She didn't act like how Gina supposed a comfort woman should. NGina couldn't help but feel sorry for the woman, no matter what her race was doing.

"Sorry about that," Markeil muttered as the other leering Hypnites left for some other place in the hall.

"They were staring at me like I was some sort of piece of meat," she retorted, adjusting her hair.

Markeil smiled. "That's what they do."

Gina rolled her eyes and let Markeil lead her by the hand to their table. They walked over to a large table in the centre of the dining hall. He stood behind a rather ornate chair and gestured for Gina to sit down in it. She frowned, unsure of what to do, but then she quickly realised what it was that he meant and sat down. Once he was sure that she was comfortable, he waited for someone who Gina correctly guessed to be a servant to come over to them. The servant, who Gina found to be actually strangely polite, pulled back a chair, next to where Gina was sat. Markeil thanked the servant with a slight nod of his head and then the servant left.

Gina sat there, just staring at the food which was in front of her. It looked very appealing, like something one would probably find at a fancy hotel back on Earth, but she wasn't really all that sure if she felt like eating it or not. She just poked it around on her plate with something which looked somewhat like a fork.

Markeil studied her expression. He put a hand on her arm and Gina fought back the urge to pull her arm away from him. "What is wrong?" He asked her as he gestured to her plate.

She shook her head and said to him quietly, trying not to grab anyone's attention, "I don't feel like eating it."

"Why ever not?" He asked, trying his hardest to sound as regal as possible. After all, he had a very important reputation to uphold.

She prodded the food around and sighed quietly, saying, "It doesn't feel right."

He furrowed his brow. "Why?"

"Because…" she sighed and then continued, putting her cutlery down on the plate, as quietly as possible "… I don't like to think of all those starving people in the prison cells, whilst I get to eat fancy meals. It's not fair. Why do I get all this luxury?" She asked him, looking into his oddly mesmerising blue eyes.

Markeil smiled and chuckled. "Because, I chose you to," he responded simply. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."

She doubted that was true. She had been living in the undergrowth for little less than two weeks. Then, she had had to try and stay alive in that hellish cell, and now, she was being treated as though she were some sort of princess of divine beauty. She just shook her head in disbelief.

"Now," he began sternly, "Eat your food. I promise you, you will find it very pleasing."

She nodded, and, rather reluctantly she picked up her cutlery and pushed something onto her fork with the knife. It looked a bit like meat, but she wasn't all too sure what it was. So, she asked him, before she put the odd food in her mouth.

He laughed loudly and then said, "It is called Kha'Valar."

"Oh…" she said slowly. She then tried to stop it from sliding off of her fork and she quickly shoved it in her mouth. It was slimy and tasted a little like a mollusc. She hated seafood, but just about manage to gulp it down.

He saw her discomfort and asked her, "You didn't like it?"

She shook her head, saying, "It was… different. But, it wasn't awful." She then looked at him more sternly than she had been doing before and asked him, "How many other comfort women have you had?"

They people who were hovering around in the room rather aimlessly and who were sat around the other tables, the less grand ones, suddenly stopped chattering and began to listen intently. However, they were all basically forced to continue whatever it was they were doing when they saw the warning and fairly threatening glare of Markeil.

The general proceeded to answer Gina's question. "I have only ever had one worth mentioning. She was from Thanatos. She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen." He glanced around the room, almost as if he were reminiscing.

"What happened to her?" Gina asked him, carefully and gingerly.

"She was killed," Markeil stated bluntly. "She was murdered in the Great War, over five years ago."

Not really knowing what to say, Gina put her hand on his arm and said to him softly, "Don't worry."

He nodded and realised that he could break down in front of so many of his subjects, so, he blocked out the painful memories.

Gina was genuinely surprised by his reaction. It seemed to her that Markeil was actually in love, or used to be, with this woman. Maybe, he wasn't as cold hearted as she had previously thought.

Markeil held up his glass and said loudly, over the chitchat of the other people, "A toast, to Gina!" He then clinked his glass with Gina's, and the rest of the people in the room did the same. Markeil then waited for the excitement in the room to die down and he said to Gina, quietly, "Do you still feel the same as you did earlier?"

She shook her head and sighed softly. "I don't know, Markeil. It still doesn't feel right."

"What doesn't?" He enquired, cocking his head slightly to one side.

"Me, being here," she replied. "It just doesn't feel right."

He placed his surprisingly soft hand on her face and said to her gently, "Something is troubling you, isn't it? Tell me what it is, please."

This time, to her surprise, she didn't feel as though she needed to shrug his hand off. "I want to know Data is all right," she said slowly and carefully.

He sighed and then said to her, "He is, I promise you. He is fine."

"Are you sure?" She asked him again, wanting - needing - to double-check.

He nodded quickly. "Yes, I am sure. He is being looked after better than all the other prisoners are. Does that make you happy?"

She wanted to tell him that it didn't make her 'happy' as such, but that it just gave her some degree of relief and that it made her feel as though a huge weight had been lifted from off her shoulders. However, she didn't tell him that, she just nodded.

Markeil, after some time, asked her, "Are you not going to try any of your drink?"

"What is it?" She asked as she made a disgusted face, in response to the strange and strong odour that it gave off.

"It is an alcoholic beverage," he said. "Try some, you may like it."

She frowned and then took a sip of it, being careful not to smell it as she did so. It actually tasted remarkable nice. It was much like red wine. "It is very nice," she said.

"I'm glad you like it," he said, obviously pleased with her response.

"What is the time?" She asked him nervously.

"It is not late, if you are worried," he said.

She smiled and then pressed the question as politely as she felt she could, "No, no, I was just curious."

He looked at the chronometer which hung on the wall some way behind Gina and then said to her, "It is almost 2200 hours."

"That is quite late," she observed. She then asked him, "Can I leave?"

He frowned and then asked her, "Why, is something wrong?"

"No, I am just tired, that's all."

Therefore, not wanting to upset her, and knowing how important pleasing her was to his important reputation, he nodded, agreeing with her. He stood up and then turned around to go and brief one of his commanders. He then returned to the table and held out his hand. Gina took it, nervously and the two left the dining hall. Gina, when she had held Markeil's hand, was instantly reminded of when Data saved her from falling off that cliff. No, she had to keep reminding herself. Stop thinking about Data! It's not helping you! Markeil has given you his word. Data is safe. Do not think about Data anymore! It'll do no one any good to keep thinking about it. And, those thoughts kept swimming around her head, although she very much wanted for them to stop.

Soon, they reached Markeil's quarters. Now, though, they were even more lavishly decorated than they had been when Gina and Markeil had left for the 'social gathering'. The lights were dimmed and the room was lit with a certain sense of ambience. Gina braced herself for what was to come next. Markeil led her into the sleeping quarters and, to her surprise, he stopped just short of the door. He said to her kindly, "You can sleep now."

She didn't budge, slightly confused. The wine-like drink which she had consumed was certainly beginning to take its toll on her. Her vision was starting to get a little blurred and distorted and her judgement was starting to cloud over. She felt herself fall against him and Markeil, being strong, hauled her up to her feet, saying, with a slight touch of amusement, "You humans must not be able to hold their liquor."

She scowled.

Markeil sighed heavily, being slightly annoyed with her, and lifted her up into her arms. She flopped into his arms and he carefully placed her in the bed. He drew the cover over her and then turned to leave the room. Though, he was stopped when Gina put her hand on his arm, saying, "Where … are you going?"

"I am going to finish my work. You must sleep now," he said. He took a quick glance at her and then kissed her on the forehead. For Gina, it delivered quite an odd feeling. It was something in between confusion, joy and disgust.

Markeil then left and Gina quickly fell asleep, wrapped up warmly in the covers.

Gina woke up and yawned loudly. She was still feeling reasonably tired, but, otherwise, she felt basically fine. The amount of alcohol she had consumed the previous evening was not that much, although it was quite powerful, so she didn't have even the slightest of hangovers.

She had woken up so many times when she and the android officer had been alone in the dangerous forests and caves of Hypnos, in his arms, that it didn't seem strange to think about Data. This time, though, she couldn't see his face. Instead, she saw someone else. It was General Markeil walking towards her.

She managed to gather her strength up and she sat up in the bed. Markeil came over to her and sat beside her, perched on the edge of the large bed. It was his bed which she was laying in now, but he had basically given it to her that night. She was thankful for that. "Did you rest well?" He asked her as he took her hand.

She was fond of this man, she knew she was. It wasn't love, and it wasn't certainly was not admiration, either. It was the fact that she had, in her own way, made him a marginally better person. She knew that he was treating her well, as he had promised her, and that Data was also being treated better than he was before. And, that was because of Markeil and because of what she had said to him. "I did, thank you," she said as she yawned again and blinked in the intense light.

He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. It was cold.

He pulled back and studied her. "Come," he said, regaining his authoritative tone of voice, "You have to eat now."

She nodded obediently and then said, "I'll get changed first." She then went into the bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror, once again.

When she returned from the bathroom, she saw that Markeil was holding a rather splendid looking feast in his hands, on top of a large tray. She hardly ate anything for breakfast, but this food which Markeil was holding, was more than she would even eat for lunch or dinner. However, it seemed an appropriate amount of food for Markeil. He was quite a slim individual, although he was tall and very strong. He was fit and very healthy, but didn't appear to be overly bulked up. He showed the food to her and she just smiled.

"I'm not really that hungry," she said slowly and quietly, not wanting to anger him.

He looked, understandably, downcast. However, he hadn't actually prepared the meal himself. He had just had it replicated from the food replicator. He just nodded and said to her, "As you wish." He then tipped the food into the waste disposal unit.

"What have you done with my Starfleet uniform?" She asked.

"It is in the sleeping quarters."

She nodded and thanked him. However, he caught her arm as she walked passed him so she could go to the sleeping quarters. "You can't wear it now," he said to her sternly.

"I wasn't going to, I was just going to see if it was there."

Markeil nodded and Gina then went over to where the uniform was. She picked it up and stared at it, wanting so very desperately to be able to wear it again. But, she knew that that wasn't going to be happening anytime soon. Then, she noticed something strange. Or rather, she didn't notice something. Her combadge wasn't there. "Markeil?" She called out.

He poked his head around the door and then replied, "Yes?"

"Where is my combadge?" She pointed to the empty space on her uniform, just below the black collar, where the communications badge used to be.

He gently pushed her hands away from the uniform and put his hand on her cheek, caressing it. He looked down at her, for she was at least a head shorter than him. He leant his head forward and touched his lips to hers. Gina felt an impulse to back away from him, but she didn't and she kissed him back. Instantly, she felt something. It was like guilt. But, she thought, guilty because of what? She had no reason to feel guilty. Unless, she thought… Data…, and then, No, she thought defiantly. Starfleet will surely send another vessel in search of her, Data and Picard. Forget about it, she felt her consciousness telling her. However, her subconscious was trying to scream something else to her. It was saying: This is wrong!

Markeil woke up, confused. He wondered where Gina had gone. He let his weary eyes adjust to the sun's light that was finally managing to pour through the window. He sat up in the bed and searched around the room. "Gina?" He called.

Gina had heard him but didn't know whether or not she should answer. Markeil got out of the bed and started over to the computer station. "Why are you sat here?" He asked her, motioning to the computer.

She shrugged. "No reason. I was just reading up on stuff."

He raised an eyebrow. He studied her from head to toe. Even as she stood up, he watched her. It unnerved her a little. "Markeil, what is it? You keep looking at me."

He instantly broke his gaze. "Uh…" he started. "Apologies. It's just that you look so beautiful today."

She left the computer station and faced him. "What?"

He stepped forward to touch her hair.

"Markeil, I can't," she reminded him. "I don't…" Do I? Don't I? She didn't know.

He shrank back a little, but knew how he felt. "Gina, I have already made my feelings known. Do I have to repeat myself?"

She shook her head, more out of confusion than defiance, though. "I am your comfort woman," she stated bluntly. "You don't love me, and, you can't. If you think I'm alright with being the victim of some sort of Stockholm syndrome, then you can think again."

He cocked his head to one side and his black hair lost some of its shape. He didn't understand what he had meant. He studied her blank expression for a sign, but he could find nothing.

"This cannot happen," Gina said, gesturing. "Us." She frowned and sighed. "I need to figure out a way to help Picard and Data."

"You're still thinking about them?" He asked her, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

She nodded firmly. "Of course I am! They're both my commanding officer. Never leave a man down. That's what they used to say in the armies of Old Earth."

"I want you to forget," he revealed. "Forget your captain. Forget the android."

"I won't forget them. I can't do that. Just because I am privileged doesn't mean I should forget Captain Picard and Commander Data. I'm only here because I'm a woman," she argued.

Markeil shook his head and stepped over to her. He cupped her chin. "No, I chose you."

She scoffed.

"I am a General. I have command over an entire prison complex. I could have any comfort woman that I wanted."

"Oh, and that's supposed to make me feel better?" She said sardonically.

He cursed himself under his breath. "I didn't mean it to sound like that. I want you to forget about your crew and Starfleet. I need you too."

"Do you have any idea how weird that sounds?" She asked. "You don't mean it. You can't."

"If you forget about them then maybe you will notice me," he said, not caring how desperate it sounded.

She shook her head out of confusion. "How can you think that I don't notice you? I live with you."

"I mean, for who I really am," he explained.

She sighed.

When Markeil next saw Gina, she was sat on the edge of the couch. He stood in the doorway for some time, wondering when would be an appropriate time to approach her. He wondered how she was feeling.

Gina didn't know that he was there. She was staring at her necklace. She thought herself lucky that she had remembered to put it on again after she had put it in her pocket. If she had left it in her uniform pocket, she guessed that she would never see it again. The necklace was cold but gave her comfort, she didn't care.

Markeil made up his mind. He started over to her and she didn't even look up. Whether it was because she couldn't be bothered or because she still hadn't realised that he was there, Markeil could not tell. He sat down beside her and she instantly jumped. She drew back and hid the necklace from his view. He didn't know what it was. He held out his hand and gave her a firm look. She knew she couldn't disobey him. So, she begrudgingly handed the necklace over to him.

Markeil studied it carefully. It was silver and was comprised of a dainty chain and had a locket on it. He opened the locket, wondering what he would find inside of it. He smiled at the photo. "Who are they?" He asked as he looked at the miniature picture of the smiling man and woman."

Gina took the necklace from him. "My parents."

He studied her expression. Just from looking at her emotionless eyes, he could tell that something bad had happened. He knew her parents were dead. "You are an orphan?" He asked.

She nodded and continued to fiddle with the necklace. "Yes," she replied in a whispering tone, her throat catching.

"Then, that is something we have in common," he added.

"You are an orphan? What happened to your parents?" She quizzed him.

"They were killed when I was only a child. A military exercise."

"I'm sorry," she managed to say in a small voice.

"Anyway," he said, making a pointless gesture with his hands. "Let us not dwell on the past. If this topic upsets you, then I would rather we didn't talk about it." He put his hand on her shoulder.

Gina pulled away from him slightly and said hurriedly, "I think I am going to get an early night." She stood up and quickly made her way to the quarters. She got ready for bed and then turned the lights out. She couldn't sleep, though.


	17. Inconvenient Interruptions

"You still think about Data," Markeil muttered as he watched Gina. He knew she wasn't asleep. She was pretending to be, though. He strained his eyes in the darkness. Gina was sleeping the furthest away from him that she could. There were no other beds. It had been weeks since Gina had seen Data. Even longer since she had heard from the Enterprise.

Gina broke her fake slumber and opened her eyes, frowning. "Why do you say that?" She didn't want to talk. She wanted to think.

He laughed despairingly. "It is obvious, Gina."

"Well, you must be mistaking the signs or something," she stammered. "Because, I am not thinking about Data. You gave me your word that he would be safe, and Captain Picard."

"You don't think about him? About Data?" He pressed.

She realised that she had contradicted herself. "Of course I do think about him. I care about him. He is my commanding officer," she answered nonchalantly. "I just don't think of as him anything but a friend. He's the one friend whom I can trust completely."

Markeil raised an eyebrow at that.

"Is this," she said as she gestured to the bed in which they were. "Not convincing enough?"

He shook his head and sat up. "No, no," he replied. "It is."

"Then, will you stop acting so paranoid. I do care about you as well, Markeil," she said warmly. "But, I don't know if my love for you is stronger than my duty to Starfleet and my fellow officers."

He considered that and ran it through his mind. "I'm not asking you to choose," he whispered.

She smiled. "Oh, but you are," she said. "The crew will certainly not favour my presence when they realise that I was sleeping with the enemy, literally." She stopped and winced a little. "I can't stay here, Markeil."

"I love you though, Gina," he murmured. "I can't help it."

This is ridiculous, Gina thought. We barely know each other. How long has it been? Two weeks? A month? Her thoughts were cut short when she felt Markeil's hand touch her face. She saw him smile fondly.

He leant down and kissed her on the lips. It was impulse; he didn't think. She felt herself being pulled toward him and she placed her hand to his cheek. His hands were wrapped around her waist, holding her close.

"Markeil, I…" she began as she broke free from the kiss.

Markeil nuzzled her neck and kissed her cheek, slowly working his way up to her mouth again. Gina shuddered slightly when she felt his hand running up her leg. She dismissed her thoughts and allowed herself to go free. She felt like she was being pulled into him; she pulled him back. Time seemed to pass differently to usual. Though, whether it was too quickly or too slowly, Gina could not tell. Markeil broke free from the kiss and took off his shirt, tossing it on the floor. It was the first time Gina had properly - when she wanted to - seen him shirtless. She scanned his physique. Perfection. Though, the ghostly whiteness of his skin was strange and almost distracting, she could find no marks or blemishes. His skin felt cold and Gina pressed her lips to his again, as soon as he had removed his shirt. He kissed the side of her mouth clumsily and then worked his way down to her neck, nuzzling her. He planted soft kisses on her collar bones and then her mouth again.

"I do," he gasped. "I do love you."

Gina released herself from him and he noticed her confused look.

"Believe me," he said, as he kissed her neck again.

She shrank back a little and said softly, "This... Markeil…"

He tried to kiss her again, but she pushed him gently back. "Listen," she instructed him.

He moved back slightly.

"This isn't right," Gina concluded.

"Why? Why isn't it right? Why is it wrong?" He asked her, desperate for an answer.

She shrugged sadly. "I don't know," she admitted.

"Then, how can you know that this is wrong?"

"I don't know," she said, sighing.

"I told you Data is fine. I told my men to treat him well, and that Captain of yours. I gave you my word," he said desperately.

"I know, I know," she replied. "Still, I…" her voice faded out.

Markeil looked into her eyes. They seemed distant; colder than usual. He wanted to make them brighter again. "Gina, you're not making any sense. I love you, can you not see that?"

She didn't know how he could love her. It had only been little more than a month since she had first seen him in the cell. She looked at him. He was sweaty and his hair was dishevelled. She knew he wasn't lying. "I can see that," she answered in a small voice.

"Then, what is the problem?" He asked.

She didn't know. She actually had no idea. She cursed herself and her whole predicament under her breath. She looked up and around the room, before looking back at Markeil. His piercing blue eyes were close to hers. She could see right into them. She noticed his eyes close and he leant forward, kissing her cheek. She turned her head and caught the side of his mouth with hers. Markeil had one of his hands cupping her chin, the other on her leg. Gina held his face and felt herself being absorbed into his kisses. They were strange kisses. They had an air of confusion, desperation, love and sadness in them. She released her grip on him, but knew Markeil wanted her to continue.

She breathed heavily and lifted her hands over her head to get her shirt off. She pulled him back to her and felt his weight on her. He shifted and kissed the side of her mouth, then her cheek, then her ear. He found her neck and nuzzled it. She ran her fingers through his dark hair, some of it flopping onto her face. Her arms were entwined around his neck and Markeil was holding her close. He didn't want to let go.

Just then, a buzzing sound interrupted them. Gina pushed him off her. "Markeil, I heard something," she whispered.

He hushed her, saying, "It doesn't matter. It can wait."

She allowed herself to be swept away by another of his kisses, but the buzzing sound went off again. "Markeil," she said firmly. "You should see what it is. What if someone were to walk in?"

His face paled and then he said, "They can't. I'm the most senior official here."

"Still, you should go see what it is. It might be important," she insisted.

"It's probably only a servant, or a messenger," he said half-heartedly. "Maybe a guard."

She sighed and smiled at him warmly. "Markeil," she said. "Go."

Markeil stood up and went over to the door. He heard the buzzing sound again. "Shut up," he said under his breath. He pressed a button on the door panel. "You may enter."

The door slid open and a small Hypnite appeared. The young man stared at Markeil. It was an odd sight. He found himself staring at a hot, sweaty and shirtless image of his commanding officer. He snapped out of his stare.

"What do you want?" Markeil asked him wearily.

The soldier gathered his bearings and then said quietly, but trying to remain professional, "The President wishes to talk to you."

"What on earth for?" Markeil wondered aloud.

"He did not say, sir," the soldier said.

"No matter," Markeil said, brushing it off. "Tell the President I'll be up shortly."

"Sir, he said to be there immediately," the soldier said.

Markeil frowned. "I will leave as soon as possible." He gave the command and the door slid closed again. He returned to Gina. Getting back into the bed, he was about to reach for her again, but she stopped him.

"What was it?" She asked him worriedly.

"Nothing important. Do not worry. Jevail wants to see me, that's all," Markeil replied calmly.

"The President?" Gina said, surprised.

Markeil nodded.

"What for?"

"He hasn't said," Markeil replied. "I'll go soon."

"Shouldn't you go now?" Gina said. "You'll only get in trouble—"

Markeil cut her off, stroking her face. A strand of hair hung on the side of her face and he brushed it behind her ear. He tilted her head up, so that they were at eye level. Gina could see that passion in his eyes, and she was almost sure that he could see it in hers too.


	18. Broken and Fixed

"What's been wrong with you lately?" Markeil quizzed her, raising an eyebrow, watching her closely.

Gina looked over at him and she sighed. But, only softly. She pondered over what options she had regarding her apparent disturbance. For one moment, she could barely believe that he was even actually asking her what was wrong with his in the first place. She had been apprehended. Kidnapped. Thrown in a jail cell. And, now, she was playing happy families with a man who had labelled her - rightfully, which only made it worse - as his comfort woman.

In the end, though, she knew that there was no point in bringing up the topic. Maybe later... in time, Markeil would be able to listen. Properly. However, Gina knew that she did have feelings for him. She cared for him. Also, she could easily tell that he harboured deep feelings for her, in turn. He often showed emotion for her and she couldn't deny that she wished she could fully reciprocate his her feelings for him. She looked up at him and managed to contort her lips in a slight smile. It was thin, but meaningful. "It's nothing," she finally replied.

Markeil, however, was not particularly convinced. He stroked her hair and sighed. "It isn't nothing," he retorted.

There was no way she could do to stop him from asking questions. "Really," she said, trying to sound firm, but the conviction in her voice was wavering in uncertainty.

Markeil took her into his arms and kissed her cheek. Feeling the stiffness of her body against his, he pulled back. "Tell me."

"It's my shoulder," she finally let on, in a small voice.

Markeil's brows came together in confusion. "Your shoulder? What happened to your shoulder?" he enquired, studying her closely.

Weakly, she nodded. "When the shuttle crashed, my shoulder was dislocated." She noticed his perplexed and slightly unconvinced look, so continued, "Data relocated it."

Markeil stiffened at the sound of the android's name.

"It still hurts," Gina revealed.

"I'll call the medics," he said sharply. "I won't have you sitting here in pain."

"No, no," Gina said quickly, almost cutting him off.

"I thought you said it was still causing you pain," Markeil said, looking at her closely.

Gina nodded slowly. "It is, but only when there's... pressure applied to it."

With that, Markeil immediately took his hands away from her and instead stroked her cheek. "I'm sorry," he iterated.

"Don't be," she said softly. "It's ok most of the time."

Markeil shook his head. "I'm calling the medics right away." He stood up and proceeded to the commpanel, whereupon he pressed it and keyed in a few command codes.

Sitting in the far corner, Gina was clutching her shoulder, not knowing entirely why. There was no reason for her to be touching it so. Her shoulder was not causing her pain to such a great degree. The pain was there, but it was more of a smart than actual pain.

She watched with grateful but alarmed eyes as the medics came charging into the room. They laid out their medical supplies and one of them - whom Gina supposed to be the superior - approached Markeil. "What is the problem?" he asked. Gina looked well - for the most part - and so did Markeil. He frowned.

"This woman has a dislocated shoulder," he muttered, walking over to Gina and hauling her to her feet. She watched as the medics swarmed around her.

"Sir, her shoulder is not broken," the chief medic explained. "It was. But, not anymore."

"I don't care," Markeil repelled gruffly. "Just..." he paused to consider it. "Give her the best treatments you can. She'll need follow-up treatments after a dislocated shoulder, surely?"

Not wishing to be stared down by General Markeil, the dominant medic called over his men. "What are you waiting for?" he called out to them. "I want an onsite post-relocation procedure."

Obeying the chief medic, the subordinates quickly got out the requires equipment and supplies. One of them took Gina's pulse. Another watched her pupils for dilation. Gina sighed impatiently. This level of attention was ridiculous. It was... nice to think that Markeil had offered to show his affection for her in such an obvious manner, but she didn't want to he the subject of such attention. She was - bluntly put - a prisoner.

"Does that feel better?" Markeil asked her, as soon as the medics had left them alone.

Gina nodded slowly. "Yes, thank you. But, it wasn't really necessary."

"On the contrary," Markeil countered. "I'll have nothing but the best treatment for you." He kissed her cheek and drew her into an embrace. Stroking her hair, he asked softly, "I hope you're not too annoyed."

"Annoyed?" she repeated. "I'm not annoyed." She was. A little. She hated being doted on. Her every whim pandered to. She knew Markeil only meant well, but she hated the knowledge of Data, and doubtless other innocents, being trapped in those infernal cells. She allowed herself to sink into serenity as Markeil rubbed her shoulder softly, almost meditatively, whispering words into her ear.


	19. Lonely Among Us

Jean-Luc Picard was alone. He had never, ever, in his whole entire life felt even a little bit as lonely as he was feeling now. He was never alone when he was growing up in the tiny, idyllic village of La Barre in France, on Earth. He was not an only child. He had a brother, named Robert Picard. And, in spite of the fact that he and Jean-Luc had never really gotten the chance to properly see eye to eye, Picard still found that he sort of missed him. And, what's worse, is that Picard was beginning to find that he somehow was missing his brother's company at the moment.

Even though, during their childhood, Robert would literally more or less leap at a chance to torment Picard. He would often bully and torment the prolific starship captain, even when there was no real reason to do so. Robert Picard had never much liked the fact that Jean-Luc could more or less do anything that he wished or wanted, and their parents would basically turn a blind eye. Robert was always considered to be the responsible one of the two brothers, and, Robert was never really sure why. He was the elder brother of Captain Picard, so he gathered that that was probably the reason why.

When Jean-Luc Picard had finally broken the news to his family that his lifelong ambition was to join Starfleet, they were not really all that certain about what to say in response to his revelation. However, in the end, Jean-Luc was very pleased and also somewhat relieved that they had chosen to support his chosen way of life. Robert, however, was not quite as impressed or even in the slightest bit supportive. Jean-Luc had always been the favourite child and, now, he was allowed to go and live out his dreams. Although, Robert wasn't jealous of the fact that his younger brother could be allowed to go and serve on board a mighty starship somewhere high above in the heavens. All he saw it to be was his annoying little sibling gallivanting off in the dark void of space. He wasn't jealous of that. At least, he tried not to be.

Jean-Luc Picard was, at present, sat in a darkened room. It smelt rather horrible and the stench which was basically literally pouring off of the damp and dirty floor was so repellent that he would even go as far as to say that it could probably have the ability of killing a man. However, he had been in this godforsaken place for quite a considerable amount of time, and so, he had actually found himself beginning to get used to the awful odour which was surrounding him.

What he couldn't get used to though, was the food. He wasn't even sure whether or not the slop that was delivered to him daily in a rather filthy bowl could actually be called food. It was certainly unlike any other food he had ever laid eyes on. However, it kept him going and he knew that there could, indeed, be worse situations. He hadn't been left to starve and, at least, he was allowed to use the bathroom from time to time, although the guards did have to watch.

It was quite uncivilised but he was thankful for the fact that he was still alive. He was actually rather surprised at that. He had thought these monsters… these Hypnites… would have gladly locked him away some dark and nasty place and then thrown away the key. But, they hadn't. He was healthy, more or less, and he was not delirious. He was not losing his mind. He had been in the cell for longer than a month, but he was not insane, as he had to keep reminding himself.

At the moment, he was staring at a crack in the wall of the gloomy cell. It had been growing since the day he had been thrown in the cell and was now quite large. He wasn't really sure why he was looking at the crack. But, he found it somehow enchanting. It was most confusing as to why he had felt this way, but, he just did. It was as if he crack seemed to remind him of the fact that he wasn't going to be stuck in this place Riker and the rest of the crew must be doing something to help me, he thought to himself.

Then, all of a sudden, he heard something. Or, at least, he thought he had heard a noise. And then, he heard it again. It was the sound of the bolts which fastened the door to his cell so tightly shut. He knew he wasn't just imagining it. Again, the noise became apparent until, at last, the door was opened. For a bizarre and, Picard thought, a rather ridiculous moment, he thought that it might be Starfleet coming to his rescue. He would have been literally jumping up for joy if it had been anyone on the other side of the door who could help him. If it had been Q, the seemingly omnipotent being who had made a mockery of him, of his crew, and, not to mention the entire human race, Picard felt as though he would have been pleased.

However, his dreams were shattered when he saw a white arm poke through the door and then a head, further upwards and he realized, quickly, that it was a guard. A Hynite guard to be precise. He sighed and waited for whatever gruesome news that the guard was most likely to give him. It could be anything, Picard thought to himself darkly. He could be about to say that the entire crew of the Enterprise had been captured or that the ship itself had been shot, however, all the guard did was walk over to him. The guard then held something out in his white hands and handed whatever it was to Picard.

Picard outstretched his hands, not really wanting for the menacing and tough looking guard to come any closer than was necessary. And, as soon as he had the object in his hands, he realized what it was. It may not have been much, but it was something. It was something wonderful to him. It was of medium size and also of a medium weight. It was a book. He loved the way the bound paper felt in his hands and braced himself when he finally turned it over, to see the front cover of the book. And, it was blank, to his frustration.

It was a novel, he noticed, and an old one at that. It was peculiar though, because something was missing. And, for a short and rather annoying while though, he wasn't quite sure what it was that was missing. And then, he noticed it. It didn't smell right. It should feel of old paper, as the book was made to appear to be so very ancient. In fact, it actually smelt of nothing. And then, it struck Picard, It was replicated!

However, not wanting to remain bored forever, he turned the first page and soon realized what book it was. In broad, archaic and aristocratic lettering, it said, rather proudly: MOBY DICK, OR, THE WHALE. Picard almost actually squealed with glee. Now, he wasn't really that bothered that he was in a dirty prison cell with no apparent hope of escape. He had with him, at least, his favourite book, so, all was well. For the moment, at least.

****

Gina Monroe tried to carefully pull herself away from the strong arms of the sleeping General Markeil. She gently kissed him on the cheek, although, she was not really sure why she had done it, and then managed to walk slowly away from the bed. She made her way gingerly out of the door to their now shared sleeping quarters and quickly slipped her shoes on. She then walked out of the main area of the living quarters and subsequently left.

She was very watchful to be as perfectly quite as she found to be possible. She was, at this moment, grateful for the fact that she was not wearing her high heeled shoes. Now, she only had some rather dainty but beautifully exquisite flats. They were given to her by Markeil only a few days after they had met. She walked carefully through the dark passages which were located close by to the building in which Markeil and she were living. The passages, much like the cell which she had been in with Data, also carried an obscure and frankly, quite repugnant odour.

Soon, she found the large door which she recognised as being the main entrance to the prison building. She knew that, somewhere on the other side of this great door, was Data. She could then see for herself if he was alive and well. She couldn't live with herself if something bad had happened to him. She was happy and healthy, living with Markeil, whilst Data, the one person who she felt had truly understood her, was left to wallow in this abominable, repulsive and godforsaken cell.

She reached forward very carefully and slowly and pushed against the massive door. And, to both her surprise and pleasure, it wasn't locked. She could just about manage to push it open just a little way, as it was very heavy. She stepped forward and went through the newly formed gap in between the door and the wall. She held her nose firmly and then began to walk around in the awful prison building.

She wandered for quite some time, at least a few dozen minutes and she still hadn't managed to come across Data's cell. Unbeknownst to her, Captain Picard was also present in one of the many dirty cells, but she couldn't see him. Even if she had been looking for him on purpose, she couldn't possibly have been able to find him.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around and was almost about to slap whoever it was that was standing behind her in the face. But, she was lucky that she didn't. It was a guard, and, a rather tough looking one at that. She fumbled for something to say to him, but no words were actually able to come out.

The guard studied her firmly and then said to her, in a loud, gruff tone of voice, "You are General Markeil's woman, yes?"

She hated how he had used the phrase Markeil's woman. She was not his woman, at least, she didn't see it that way. Nevertheless, not wanting to get on the wrong side of this rather menacing looking guard who was obviously around three times as strong as she was, Gina managed to reply quietly, "Yes, I am Markeil's comfort woman."

He then furrowed his brow before putting a heavy and rather intrusive hand on her arm. He began to drag her away from the prison block and she asked him, scared and startled by his actions, "What are you doing?"

"You are to return to the general. You are his and you must go to him," the white skinned guard responded to her simply and to the point.

She sighed heavily and then managed to pick up her speed just a little bit. It wasn't much, but, at least she wasn't being physically dragged by the guard.

The guard, once they had reached Markeil's quarters, pressed the communications panel that was situated on the wall, just next to the door and stood there rather impatiently.

On the other side of the door, Markeil was awoken by the loud and annoying buzzing sound of the communications panel. Once he had opened his eyes, he instantly allowed his gaze to shift over to the other side of the large, ornate bed and sat up instantly, startled. Where was Gina? He thought to himself franticly. He then realized that someone was standing outside his quarters and he stood up and wandered over to the door, his vision a little hazy and said simply, "Come." The door instantly slid open and Markeil felt the relief start to relinquish all of the worry inside of him.

The guard gently shoved Gina towards Markeil. At least, he had thought it had been gently, but it had not. Gina felt a tiny shot of pain run through her spine and she basically banged into Markeil. Markeil stumbled a little backwards and caught Gina in his broad arms.

Markeil was furious with the guard. "Insolent man!" He yelled at him loudly.

The guard was simply lost for words. He tried to say something, but no words would even come out.

Markeil took a step forward and said to him simply, not wanting to make a scene in front of Gina, "Get out."

And so, dreading the very thought that he might disobey his commanding officer, the guard swiftly left them to it and the door slide close again.

Once she was sure that they were alone, Gina began to turn away from him. But, Markeil caught her arm and said to her sternly, "Gina, where did you go?"

"To… " She hung her head. "Don't worry."

He nodded uncertainly and then regarded her quizzically. "No matter," he decided. "You had me worried," he then admitted.

"I am sorry," she said, actually meaning it, to her disbelief. "I am."

He smiled briefly and then said, "I believe you. Do not worry about it now."

She walked over to the couch but, once again, she felt Markeil's cold hand on hers and he asked her softly, "Where are you going?"

"I was going to… I don't know. I was just going to go and think, I guess."

He took her hands and said to her reassuringly, "I am not angry with you, Gina. I… I care about you, please do not ever think otherwise."

"You do?"

"I do," he said defiantly. "I do."


	20. Promises

Markeil rolled over in the bed and sighed. His eyelids flickered a little in response to the bright light which was attempting to stream in through the tiny windows in the quarters. He wasn't used to a lot of light and so, every time he woke up from a deep sleep or every time his eyes had to adjust to the newly found light source.

However, he was somehow pleased when he knew that the time had come for him to open up and face the day because he had the knowledge that someone would be there, lying next to him, when he woke up. And, sure enough, when he allowed his gaze to fall over to the side, he noticed Gina. She was sleeping peacefully, but somehow, and for reasons which Markeil couldn't really understand, she had some sort of odd expression on her face. It looked like she was thinking about something, but that she was thinking about it very deeply. In fact, extremely deeply.

He moved along the bed so that he was closer to her and he asked he in a quiet tone of voice, so as not to disturb her more than necessary, "Gina, is there something wrong?"

Gina waited for her eyes to adjust to the daylight and then she too looked over at him and asked, "Nothing is wrong. Why do you ask?" When she had had her eyes closed, she wasn't really actually sleeping. She was wide awake but didn't want Markeil to realise that something was the matter with her. And so, she had decided to keep her eyes closed. However, now, she had comprehended that there was essentially no real point in pretending to be asleep. Markeil had noticed, regardless.

"You looked as though you had something on your mind," he observed as he knitted his brows ever so slightly and then raised a quizzical eyebrow.

She tried to force a smile and, eventually, the smile came out. Even if it was only for a few brief seconds and it didn't really appear to be all that convincing. "I was just thinking," she murmured as she tried to roll back over in the bed.

However, she couldn't and Markeil held her arm firmly, but not forcefully. He looked her squarely in the eye and asked her patiently, "Gina? I know you are worrying about something."

She shook her head and felt an almost incomprehensible amount of emotions beginning to form inside of her and they were slowly starting to well up and overflow her mind. "It's not important," she said decidedly before sighing heavily and rubbing her eyes a little. She had hardly been able to get any sleep that night, and so, understandably, was tired.

"Please," he said sternly. "Tell me."

She frowned and then moaned softly, not really wanting to tell him. "I… I don't know how to say this," she began rather uncertainly.

He raised an eyebrow and asked her again, "What do you mean?"

"It doesn't feel right," she said simply, looking up at the ceiling.

Markeil queried, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is…" she stopped. And then was quiet for a few moments to allow herself time enough to think through properly what it was that she was going to say to him. "…That, I can't go on thinking of how there are so many people rotting in those cells, whilst I am allowed to live life in luxury."

He reached out and stroked her hair gently. "I understand—"

Gina cut him off angrily, saying, "No, you don't understand! You can't understand!"

He was a little taken aback and saw a tear fall from her eye. He reached over a wiped it away, saying carefully, "Gina, I assure you everyone who is in the prison cells is there for a reason. A good reason."

She whimpered quietly and then sighed deeply. "What about my captain?" She demanded impatiently.

"Your Captain Picard is quite safe. I promise you," he replied simply.

"What? He's here?" She asked, dumbfounded and confused.

He nodded solemnly, "He is, yes. He has been here for quite some time."

"Let him go, oh, please… let him go!" She said loudly.

"Shhh," he said softly, trying to calm her down a little. "I do not even have the right authority to tell you that."

Gina sighed and managed to keep thoughts about Captain Picard, for she knew that asking about him would not get her any answers. She stifled back the tears which were already beginning to burn the backs of her eyes and scratch her throat. "And… Data?" She asked, her voice so quiet that it was barely even audible. "Is he… okay?"

Markeil simply nodded. "He is fine, Gina." He then asked her, "Why do you so often think about him? He is not a person." He almost scoffed, but managed to refrain from doing so, as he knew that it would most definitely upset Gina.

"He is a person!" She shot back angrily. "He is the most human person there is," she said, ignoring the obvious irony in what she had just said.

He sighed, seeing that he shouldn't press the situation further. He sat up in the bed and said, looking at her, "Commander Data is fine. I promise you."

"You… promise?" She asked nervously.

He nodded. "Yes, you have my word. He is not being ill-treated."

She then sat up and frowned.

"Come here," he said welcoming.

Gina smiled and then shuffled over a little so that she was sat next to him. He took her dainty hand in hers gently and said to her softly, "You have such stunning eyes." He stroked her face gently.

She felt like she needed to shudder or something. Although she did care for Markeil and he did care for her deeply in return, she wanted him to be Data. She wanted Data to be with her. Like that's going to happen, she reminded herself as she looked down to see her hand on Markeil's.


	21. Misunderstandings

General Markeil paced the room nervously, with his hands draped behind his back. There was an expression plastered on his handsome face which denoted so much worry and apprehension that Gina could simply not help her being alarmed. Every now and then, Markeil would let out a massive sigh and shake his head.

Gina got up out of the chair and walked over to him. "Markeil? What is it?" She did not love him, she knew that. However, she did care for him, so she wanted to know what was causing him to act in such an odd way.

He shook his head and then finally stopped pacing. "It does not concern you," he said icily, before continuing to pace around the room. His hands were held up to his forehead and he was quite obviously thinking very deeply.

She frowned and then stood in front of him, subsequently blocking his path. "Markeil, tell me."

Markeil sighed and then looked at her, saying, "I have a meeting with President Jevail soon."

"What sort of meeting?" She asked. She had already figured out that it probably was not going to be a pleasant conversation which Markeil and Jevail would soon be having. However, she just wanted to be one hundred percent certain.

"You wouldn't understand," he said simply, trying his hardest not to look her in the eye. Although, it couldn't really be avoided, at least, not very easily anyway.

Ignoring his rude tone of voice, Gina said to him calmly, "I'm just trying to help."

"I know, I know," he said, finally giving up.

"Why would Jevail want to speak with you, anyway?" She asked him.

He sat down after sighing loudly. Gina sat down beside him. "I am not only the governor of this prison complex," he began slowly.

She cocked her head slightly to one side, saying, "What do you mean?"

"I am also the deputy head of state for Hypnos," he admitted, looking rather uncomfortable as he did so.

Gina was so taken aback that she failed to reply straight away. Instead, she just simply stared at Markeil in disbelief. Then, she finally managed to talk, "But… if you've got so much power, can't you put a stop to this madness?"

He shook his head. "It is beyond my control."

"How is it beyond your control?" She demanded, feeling relatively befuddled.

Markeil simply shrugged his broad shoulders, thinking of something to say in response to her question. "We are not like your…" he paused, thinking of an appropriate term to use "…democratic Federation. Although I am an aide of the President, he will always exercise supreme control over the entirety of the Hypnos people."

"Well, do you believe what is happening is right?" She asked him. "Is this war necessary?"

Shaking his head, Markeil answered simply, "I have to admit, when I first became aware of this… conflict, I was a little unsure as to why it was happening in the first place. However—"

Seeing that there really was no more to say, Gina laughed sarcastically and said bluntly, "There is no 'however'."

Markeil ignored her and continued. "However," he began again, picking up where he had left off, "I know see that it is necessary for securing the place of the Hypnite peoples as the dominant race in our stellar system. The Thanatosians were always weaker than us, and, they always will be."

"What about that attack on the Parliament?" Gina said, reminding him of the recent Thanatosian-led bombing raid on the Parliament houses of Hypnos.

He waved it off. "That was nothing," he said bluntly.

"Twenty five Hypnites died!" She said angrily.

"Then, we must assume that that was the Thanatosian's way of trying… and failing… to be our equals," he said, his voice rather matter of fact.

She frowned, before asking, "Why wouldn't they be your equals?"

"Ever since the dawn of time, Hypnos and Thanatos were, we think, equals. However, Hypnos, understandably," he smiled broadly, "began to develop at a much faster pace than Thanatos."

"So, you thought you were better simply because of that?" She asked, not totally understanding his logic.

"No, no," he said. "It was all quite reasonable. When Hypnos was undergoing an industrial revolution, Thanatos was basically only starting to develop the wheel. When our scientists were beginning prelimanry work on interstellar travel, the people of Thanatos hadn't even left the orbit of their home planet yet."

"My planet," Gina began slowly and carefully, "Earth, was once like Hypnos. The lower in status people cowered in fear at the very sight of the king or queen, but we aren't like that now. We no longer think of money and status being important." She looked over at Markeil.

He nodded, apparently seeing the judgement in what she had just said. "And, so, knowledge is power? Is that correct?" He asked, regarding her as if searching for her seal of approval.

"It is. Knowledge is power," she agreed.

"That is exactly the reason why we enslaved the people of Thanatos," he said. And, as soon as he had spoken, he realised his mistake.

To his annoyance, Gina had picked up on it. "Enslaved?" She echoed. "You enslaved them?!"

"That is my point," he replied hurriedly, defending his corner. "Hypnites are, by nature, more intelligent than Thanatosians. That's why we chose to use their… disadvantage and make it into our advantage."

"That doesn't make any sense," Gina muttered. "What I meant was knowledge isn't just of the academic type. It also involves the moral side.

"So, someone who is stupid but kind is, in your words, more knowledgeable than a clever person who is mean?" He asked, feeling a little perplexed.

She nodded, and managed to smile. "Exactly."

"Ah," he said, nodding slightly, "I see your reasoning."

After some time, Gina managed to build up the courage to ask Markeil, "If you have any chance, of doing so, can you not persuade the government to change their minds? To stop this madness and end this war?"

Markeil pulled a slight face and looked at her deeply. "I will try, Gina, if that will make you happy."

"It will," she said, nodding.

"It is highly unlikely," Markeil admitted.

She smiled and said softly, "Nothing is impossible, though."

"I envy you Humans for your fervour and belief, sometimes," he confessed, sounding rather solemn and he subsequently slumped back into the chair.

"And so you should," Gina said, grinning.

"I've been reading up about your Earth history," Markeil said as he scanned the computer readouts on the large display.

Gina made her way over to the computer console station and sat down in the chair beside him. "And, find anything interesting?" She asked.

He shook his head and said simply, "Some of it is quite intriguing. But a lot is rather…"

"Boring?" She offered.

Markeil nodded and the carried on. "Your twenty first century appears to be an extremely pivotal moment in your history," he observed.

Gina nodded in response. "That's true. There were many good and bad things that happened then."

"Like the war," Markeil said.

Gina had remembered learning about World War Three in History class. "Yes, and First Contact."

"Our species achieved interstellar flight quite some time before yours did," he pointed out.

She smiled sarcastically, saying, "I know, but your planet is two billion years older than ours. That's probably why."

The general just smiled back. "However, it is still extremely surprising that Humanity has managed to get where it is now."

"It is," she pondered. "But, we only got where we are now, travelling among the stars, because we had the instinct to work together as a whole and solve our age-old problems like conflict, poverty and corruption."

"They are the things which make us Hypnites who were are," he stated to her, obviously feeling a deep regret for the actions of his entire race.

She put her hand on his arm comfortingly and he kissed her on the lips. When she saw his face coming closer to hers, for a moment, a very small moment, she thought it was Data. But then, she managed to regain her focus on the situation and she knew that it was Markeil. However, since their first ever meeting, which took place many weeks ago, she and him had grown closer and closer and formed a special sort of bond.


	22. Worries

"How long has it been?" Deanna Troi asked no one in particular as she sat staring out of theEnterprise's main view screen. Normally, she would have probably expected Lieutenant Commander Data, who sat at the helm console directly in front of her, to spin around in his chair and then answer her question with an exact estimate. However, now was not a normal time. The captain was missing, and so were two other crew members. The Enterprise, a vehicle of peace and exploration, had been called to act as intermediary for two warring peoples, and the future certainly was not looking all that bright.

As she had expected, it was not Data who spoke. It was Riker. "Too long," he muttered as he tried to get comfortable in the captain's chair. Of course, he had sat at the centre of the bridge, in the chair of the ship's captain many a time before. However, that was when Picard had only gone out for a medical examination, or to have a private conference with an admiral, but never in circumstances that were quite like this. This time, Riker didn't have any idea as to how long a time he would be spending in this chair. And it was taking some time to get used to. Once he had finally found a position which seemed to be a little bit more comfortable than the last, he turned his head to face the ship's counsellor, saying, "But, that won't be for long."

She cocked her head to one side, being slightly worried as to where Riker was going with this.

"We're going to find them," he said defiantly. "We're going to stop this petty war."

She faked a smile and nodded her head slowly. "I hope you're right, Will," she said, still feeling rather uncertain with the whole thing.

"So do I," he said, frowning.

All of a sudden, Riker's combadge began to chirp. Riker, somewhat stunned and caught anwares by the sudden high pitched sound, instantly sat up his chair. Over his shoulder, he could see Deanna quietly chuckling away to herself.

"Sickbay to Commander Riker," came the voice. It was Doctor Beverly Crusher.

Riker slapped the combage, so as to receive the transmission. "Riker here."

"I think you're going to want to see this, commander," Crusher said, barely even taking time to take even the shortest of breaths.

Riker nodded, saying, "Understood, on my way. Riker out."

He turned to Deanna, one of the only senior crewmembers who were unaffected by the strange illness which was currently plaguing the Enterprise. "You have to bridge."

She smiled and settled into her chair. "Aye, aye, sir."

Commander William T. Riker made his way to sickbay as quickly as possible to the ship's main sickbay, without breaking into a run. Although there were really only a small number of crew who were still well enough to actually be on duty, he didn't want them to think that something was wrong. Of course, there might be something wrong, but he couldn't be sure whether the Chief Medical Officer was calling him to sickbay for a good or bad reason. But, he surmised, the possibilities of either of the two options being true were very high.

He strode into the CMO's officer. "Yes, doctor?" He asked. "What was it?" He fought very hard to try and keep the nervousness out of his voice, however, try as he might, it was in vain.

"Look at this," Beverly crusher said as she gestured to the computer readouts on the main computer console's monitor.

The commander nodded and tried to take all of the information in. "Sorry, doctor, it doesn't really make any sense to me," he admitted, frowning at the confusing readouts.

Beverly smiled, saying, "Don't worry. Anyway," she continued, "My point is… just look at these readings." She gestured to the set of computer readouts which represented the cell growth rates of the crew members tested.

For a moment, Riker just stood there, stroking his beard thoughtfully, and he still didn't really have any clue as to what the readouts meant. And then, he realised what he was seeing. "Oh," he exclaimed. "I see it now."

"Exactly," Beverly said. "These cell growth patterns are too fast."

He frowned, asking her, "But what caused this?"

Beverly smiled and replied simply, "The radiation."

"The radiation?!" He exclaimed, a little taken aback.

The doctor nodded. "Yes, the radiation emitted by this star is causing the cells inside their bodies to mutate."

"Is it serious?" Riker asked.

She shook her head. "I don't really know the answer to that question. However, it's only been a few weeks since we caught the first few symptoms, radiation takes years, even decades to take effect."

"The thing is, doctor," Riker began, "I don't think we can leave this system yet."

"I know," she said, shaking her head solemnly. "We haven't found the captain, or Data or Ensign Monroe."

"How long do you think we can stay this close to the star, before the radiation poisoning becomes too far gone to reverse?" Riker asked.

"I've never seen this type of radiation before, so I can't say for sure. " She paused and looked over to Riker, seeing his expectant expression. "However," she then added, "the radiation is not affecting the neural systems of those affected, so in my opinion, I wouldn't say the poisoning would be as serious as something like Gamma radiation. All the radiation is doing is causing the victims to become nauseated and have very high fevers."

"So," Riker wondered, "It's kind of like some sort of… sickness bug?"

"Precisely," Beverly agreed, nodding.

"Have there been any fatalities?" Riker asked as he and Beverly left the CMO's officer and walked into the main area of sickbay.

Smiling, albeit rather nervously, Beverly walked over to one of the sick crewmen. It was Lieutenant Potter. It seemed weird, seeing him lying there, basically helpless. He had always been the most active and healthy of people and now he was just lying still, with his throat randomly going through a violent spasm and his eyes flickering every now and then.

"No, not so far," Beverly said as she studied the computer readouts regarding Potter's condition. "All of the victims are like this," she said, gesturing to Lieutenant Potter. "The rest of their vital signs are all fine."

Riker nodded, stroking his chin in smooth continuous motions. "What about Wesley?" He asked as he felt an immediate concern for her son.

Beverly feigned a smile and then led the commander over to where her son lay. He was resting peacefully and his fever was under control. "He is one of those who weren't affected as severely."

"Why's that?" Riker asked, perplexed.

"Well, my best guess would probably be that it's because he was one of the first to be affected by the radiation, as he was in engineering."

"Are most of the victims from engineering?" Riker asked.

Beverly nodded, saying, "Yes, and understandably."

On the biobed, Wesley opened his eyes and moaned softly. He looked around the room. He hadn't been awake for days. "Mom?" He asked, uncertainly.

And, almost as soon as the word had left his mouth, Beverly turned to face him. "Wesley, you're awake," she said gently, the glee barely keeping out of her voice.

He managed to smile. "I guess so..." he said, coughing.

She reached her hand out and gently stroked his hair. "You're very sick, Wesley."

He tried to nod. "I know, mom." He looked around sickbay and saw the many other crewmen who were in a similar condition to him. "What happened?" He asked her, an expression of worry growing over his face.

"It's the radiation," she replied simply. She turned back to face him and saw that he was already fast asleep again. She checked his vital signs and they were all, as expected, at the correct levels, apart from his external cellular growth rate.

Riker stepped forward towards her. He had held back whilst the doctor was talking to her son, as he didn't really think he should get in the way. "So, doctor," he began. "What now?"

"There is no real antidote. However, as soon as we move the ship away from that star, I don't see any reason why the radiation shouldn't start to flush out of their systems."

That, at least, gave him some amount of hope. "I'll see what I can do, but we can't leave until we know where are missing crewmembers have got to."

She nodded, understanding his decision. "I just hope it's soon."

Riker nodded and looked around the sickbay. It felt almost bewildering, to know that hundreds of his fellow crewmembers were in need of urgent medical attention. However, as he had to keep reminding himself, no one has died… yet.


	23. The Price of Love

The android looked around the cell. He had been sat in that very same position for hours. Unsure of the exact amount of time, he consulted his internal chronometer and found that it had been for over twelve hours. He didn't see any real point in him changing his position. There was no viable way that he could escape this godforsaken place. He couldn't call for help. His Starfleet combadge had been taken from him, so he had no hope of contacting anyone. Also gone were his phaser, meaning he couldn't blast or fight his way out, and his tricorder, so he couldn't scan for weaknesses in the structure of the building in which he was imprisoned.

It was times like this that he was actually glad that he was an android, and not simply an organic humanoid life form. If he were, he would not be nearly as well equipped as he was now. He would surely feel scared and lost.

If he were human, his mind would almost certainly become awash with feelings of anxiety, dread, intrigue and desperation. A swift shudder would travel down his spine, causing his entire body to convulse in fear. He knew that he would soon become aware of a warm liquid beginning to trickle down his face. At first, he would presume it to be a tear and that he was crying, as a result of being so swamped with terror and apprehension. However, contrary to that, the liquid would be perspiration. He would be sweating with worry all over and that probably couldn't be controlled.

Data had spent his entire life trying to be more and more human. He would wake up, or rather, turn on, every day and think to himself, something along the lines of: Today, I will be more human than I was yesterday. Regardless of this, all of his creative, innovative attempts at becoming more human did not go entirely to plan. His efforts at mastering even the simplest of human things, such as humour and understanding it, were basically beyond him. As were his attempts at finding love.

With every day that past, every hour, Data knew that it would become harder and harder for his dream of being a real human would begin to get so very distant until they would be more or less unreachable. They were already quickly becoming one with the vast, dark and unforgiving vacuum of outer space.

He was an Avant-guard, a pioneer, being the first and only such android to enter Starfleet and to be serving aboard one of their most prized vessels. However, he could not feel, he could not love, but he knew that he could do one thing which many people thought he couldn't do. And that was to care. He cared for every single life form in the galaxy, for every person on board the Enterprise,and for his friends and colleagues. However, there were some people which he did harbour a deeper sort of care for, one of those people being his closest friend, Geordi La Forge and the other being Ensign Gina Monroe.

He hadn't seen her for days, almost even as much as a week. He had been concerned for her welfare ever since she had left, but, as time went by, his levels of concern had just grown and grown. At last, he had made his mind up. He got to his feet and briskly walked over to the dirty cell door. "Guard?" He asked, uncertainly.

A Hypnite soldier wandered over to him and said in a gruff voice, "What do you want?"

"I would like to see Ensign Monroe," Data said calmly and politely.

The guard cocked his head to one side, confused. "Who?"

"The woman who was with me in this cell," Data explained.

"Oh, her," the guard exclaimed, smiling. It was not a pleasant smile, by any stretch of the imagination.

Data just raised his eyebrow and asked, "So, can I see her?"

"I'll have to ask the general."

Data nodded and replied, matter of fact, "Whatever is required, do it."

Outraged by Data's seemingly insolent use of words, the guard lashed out. He reached his hands through the grate in the door and pulled Data towards him, by the scruff of his neck. "Don't talk to me like that!" He demanded, through gritted, yellow teeth.

Trying not to let his own face get too close to the guard's, Data replied, apologetically, "I am sorry."

Sighing, the guard put Data down. "You will be punished for that," he said angrily.

Ignoring that comment, Data said, as he straightened his uniform, "When can I see her?"

"That depends," the guard said bluntly before walking off in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, in General Markeil's spacious quarters, Gina was sat at the large, majestic dining table. Markeil was sat next to her. Having gotten used to the odd cuisine of Hypnos, she didn't study and scrutinize the food which was laid in front of her. She had already drunk all of her drink and so asked Markeil, "Can I have some water?"

"We can't drink the water here," he said simply. "It is now toxic, due to the pollution."

"Oh, don't worry, then," she replied. She placed some of the meat onto her fork and chewed it vigorously. It was very tough, so she had cut it up into tiny, more manageable chunks. It tasted like pork and was, much to her surprise, quite nice in taste.

Markeil had already finished his meal. He was waiting patiently for Gina to finish hers. He looked around the room and saw that it looked different now, compared to how it looked before Gina had become his reluctant comfort woman. She had moved a few objects and now it was also much brighter. He smiled.

Gina put her cutlery down and sighed. "That was very nice," she said, as she ate the last mouthful.

"I didn't make it."

The communications panel outside Markeil's quarters buzzed and he walked over to it. "What do you want?"

The guard on the other side of the transmission nervously replied, whilst stuttering a little, "Uh… sir? The… uh… robot, I mean, uh, android wants to… wants to see your, uh, comfort woman."

The general let out a loud sigh. "Does he now?" He asked.

"Uh, yes, sir," the younger guard replied nervously. "He said it was… uh, of high importance."

Markeil chuckled, and Gina couldn't really tell if it was genuine or otherwise. "Thank you for informing me, Private. Dismissed."

The Private then closed off the communications link and left to return to his usual duties.

The comm panel was very quiet, so Gina couldn't really hear what was said all that well. "What was it?" She asked Markeil as he returned to the table.

He cleared away the food and then replied, "It wasn't important. Don't worry."

She frowned and caught his arm as he was about to walk away. "Markeil, tell me. I can see it in your face, something is wrong." She studied his confused and alarmed expression.

"I have already said, nothing is wrong," he said defiantly, his voice getting louder and louder.

She shook her head, saying, "Markeil, tell me." She put his hand on his arm.

"It is not good news…" he said sullenly, before adding, "For me."

"What… what do you mean?" She asked, confused.

"It is, however, apparently good news for you," he said, trying not to look at her.

She stood up. She considered for a moment and then brought her hand up to stroke his smooth face. "Just tell me," she said, as calmly as she could when her patience was already beginning to grow quite thin.

"Data wants to see you," he admitted.

Her mind instantly become clouded with too many things. She didn't take her hand off of Markeil's face at first, being too confused to do so. She finally did and then asked, "When did he say this?"

"I presume it was only fairly recent," he said. He added, feeling his conscience slip back from the shadows, "He has… contacted me before—"

Gina cut him off, furious. "What? He's asked before and you didn't think to tell me?!"

He held her arms tightly, saying, "It was only once. A few days ago…" he gave up, saying, "I did not want to lose you, Gina."

"Can I see him, please?" She begged him, the tears forming in her eyes.

He reached up to try and catch the tear, but he shrugged his hand away and the tear fell onto the ground.

She walked away from him and headed towards the door.

"Where are you going?" He demanded, trying desperately to keep the hurt and frustration from out of his voice.

She turned to face him, saying, "To see Data."

He walked briskly over to her and let the door slide behind them smoothly. He and Gina walked down the steps and through the badly-lit corridor, before finally coming to the courtyard-like area. The twin moons were out in the dark night sky, providing the only illumination to them. Markeil had traversed this passage many a time before, more times than he could even bare to count, so Gina fell behind and let him lead her.

At last, they reached the prison building and a tall, strong guard opened the door for them to enter, once he had recognised Markeil and saluted him.

Data's cell was quite some way down the hallway, but they soon made it there. Markeil ordered the guard to open the cell door and the guard, not wanting to displease his commanding officer, did so quickly. The cell door swung open and Gina walked in. "Data!" She exclaimed as he turned to face her. "You're alright!"

He nodded and replied slowly, "I am." He then looked at Gina and frowned. He noticed that she was no longer wearing her regulation Starfleet uniform. Instead, she was wearing something completely different. It was a silky, purple coloured dress with quarter length sleeves. The hem went down to her knees. "Are you alright?" He asked her, still studying the dress.

"I'm fine, Data," she said softly as she stepped closer to him. "I'm so glad to see you!"

He smiled, to the best of his ability. "And, I am… pleased to know that you are well."

Markeil rolled his eyes at this mechanical man. Data seemed so awkward and so out of place.

She threw her arms around him, saying, "I've missed you."

He adjusted the embrace a little so that her arms weren't crushing his neck. "Where have you been?" He asked.

"I presume you're familiar with what the Cardassians call a 'comfort woman'?" She asked, noticing Markeil shift his feet slightly out of her eye.

He nodded, feeling a little concerned and uneasy. "Ah, I see," he said simply. "Are you General Markeil's…?" He asked, as he looked out of the cell to see Markeil standing close by.

"I am."

"Is he treating you fairly?" Data asked.

She smiled, reassuring him, "Don't worry, he is." She took a quick glance around the grimy cell and said solemnly, "I'm so sorry, Data."

"What for?"

She sighed. "I get to live in luxury, while you have to live… here."

"Do not apologize. I estimate Captain Picard will be found soon and the peace negotiations can finally begin."

Gina reached up and smoothed the worry lines on his cheeks. "No, Data, the captain is here."

"Here?" Data repeated, confused. "I have not seen him."

"No, he is here alright," she said quietly. "Markeil told me that they were treating him well."

"That does not make it right," he said.

She shook her head. "I know, I know."

Markeil was beginning to get annoyed with their talking, so he stepped into the cell and said firmly, "Gina, we must go now."

She shot him an angry glare and continued to focus on Data. "Has the haemorrhage had any further effects?" She asked.

"It has not, no. I think I am completely recovered."

She smiled, obviously glad and brushed down the top part of Data's uniform.

"Gina!" Markeil said, louder this time and with more frustration in his voice.

She ignored him, not even bothering to look at him and said to Data softly, "I don't want to leave you."

"You must, Gina. I assure you, Commander Riker will think of something and this war will stop. I will be fine," he said.

She let him go. Markeil approached her, once the cell door had been shut. He held her at arm's length saying sternly, "I'm sorry, Gina. If I could persuade Jevail to—"

"Just leave me. Alone," she said.

Enraged by her apparent insolence, he said firmly, "You can't address me like that!

She shrugged. "I just did."

She then left the prison, without waiting for Markeil.

General Markeil returned to his quarters. He was confused and frustrated. He could do anything he wanted in this prison. He could basically have the hundreds of prisoners needlessly slaughtered, he could hand in his resignation, he could have Gina punished. And yet, despite all of the things he could do, he didn't want to do anything. He walked into the sleeping quarters, not knowing what else he could do, when he noticed Gina was there. She wasn't asleep, though. She was sat on the bed, with her legs drawn up beneath her.

As Markeil got closer to her, he realised that she was sobbing. She wasn't crying, she was just simply sobbing. Gina must have heard him approach, because she turned her head around and said to him angrily, "Leave me alone!"

"Now, now," he said calmly as he came and sat down beside her. "There's no need to be acting like a child, is there?"

Outraged by this, she shot back at him, "Me? The child?"

He said nothing but simply sat on the bed beside her, staring at the plain wall in front of him.

"You're the child!" She said, countering his point. "It is you who are doing nothing to put an end to this… ridiculous war!"

He put his hand on her shoulder, in as comfortingly a way as he could manage, and said, "I cannot do anything, Gina. It is beyond my power. As far as this conflict is concerned, it will go on until the president himself has a change of heart."

"Do something!" She yelled at him. "Two of my commanding officers are imprisoned, unfairly, byyour men. You have control over this jail block. Why can't you let them be free?"

He sighed heavily and then shook his head. "I cannot do anything."

"You can," she said, finally looking up to face him. "Why am I allowed to be free?" She asked him, curiously.

He stuttered and searched his mind for a reasonable response. "Because… Because—"

Growing tired with his lack of a response, Gina interrupted him, saying, "What, because I'm awoman?"

"I chose you," he answered.

She scoffed and wiped away the weak tears around her eyes. They hadn't fallen yet, and she didn't think they were going to.

Markeil sighed. "I had no company here," he revealed. "Those guards of mine are not worth talking to. I wouldn't even waste my breath on the President. Half the prisoners here are either too afraid or too stupid to even hold a conversation with. You're different. You're special." He paused and then continued, "I care about you," He cautiously brought his hand up to touch her porcelain face.

She shrugged his hand away and said to him, looking him directly in the eye, "If you really do care about me, then why can't you respect my wishes?"

"I don't want to see you go."

Gina let out a heavy sigh. "I can live here, with you," she said, thinking very carefully about what she said and how she said it. "Just, please, let Captain Picard and Data go."

He looked into her eyes and saw that she was pleading with him. "I am sorry," he said slowly. "But, I cannot. I can't disobey a direct order. It'll mean the death penalty."

Struggling to hold back the tears which were starting to burn her throat and her eyes, Gina said gently, "Put a suggestion into your government. Are you close with your president?"

He nodded very slowly. "I am, yes."

"Then, why can't you talk to him?" She asked him.

"It is a matter of pride," he stated simply. "I cannot grovel, for, I will lose my rank. I will lose my influence and I will lose my status."

She flicked the hair out of her eyes. "Please," she said slowly. "Please, Markeil. Like I said, I will stay here with you on Hypnos if you want, and all I ask is that you let Data and my captain go free. End this war. It will only get worse. The Federation will become even more involved, and soon enough, the entire quadrant will want in on all this. Wouldn't you rather you could end it now, rather than wait for it to worsen? More and more bodies will pile up, more cities will be destroyed and more relationships will be broken."

Markeil stood up, but was forced back when he felt Gina's hand on his arm. He followed it through and saw her pleading eyes. They were flecked with tears begging to come out. He stayed where he was. "Is there anything you wish to do?" He finally asked. "To take your mind off things?"

She shook her head. She withdrew her legs from under her and leant back. Markeil sat beside her, moving closer. She cared for him, and she knew that she did. "I can't deny my feelings for you, Markeil," she said quietly.

He looked down at her, leaning on his shoulder.

"But, you need to realise that I also care forStarfleet and its officers," she carried on.

He considered it and kissed her on the forehead. He didn't want her to go. He didn't care if the war continued for years more, if only it meant that she could stay with him. Normally, an officer would have the same comfort woman for years, though the woman usually ran away and was executed or just died of other means. He wasn't going to let that happen to Gina.


	24. Revelations

"I've called you all here to discuss yet another pressing matter which we have to deal with," the commander stated bluntly as he looked around the main conference room. Most of the senior staff, with the exception of Lieutenant Commander Data, where sat around the table with him. Many of them had been taken ill by the mysterious radiation illness, but thankfully, only a few of the senior staff had been affected severely. Radiation poisoning could not be spread by contact or anything like that, so Doctor Crusher had not attempted to stop Riker from calling the meeting.

Deanna Troi sighed and she tried to analyse Riker's expressionless face. She could tell that there was definitely something there, but she wasn't quite able to pin point it for sure.

Riker, once again, looked around the large room and tried to adjust to sitting in the captain's chair for another time. He then decided to continue with his talk, "We have received a radio transmission from the surface of Hypnos."

The expressions of those around the table, including Deanna Troi, were ones of shock and also confusion. "What did it say?" Deanna asked expectantly.

"It was only very short," Riker admitted. "All it said was that the message was sent by a group of around five soldiers who were on the surface of Hypnos."

"Are they Hypnites or Thanatosians?" Doctor Beverly Crusher enquired nervously.

Riker's lips thinned ever so slightly. "They say that there are three two Thanatosians and three Hypnites."

Lieutenant Worf spoke up, "What do they want?"

"Apparently, one Hypnite and one Thanatosian are injured," Riker answered. "Quite badly, too," he then added.

Worf couldn't help but to scoff at that response. "And, why are  _we_ going to help?" He asked.

Riker decided to ignore Worf's snort of derision. "Because it is our responsibility, Mr Worf," he replied casually. "It's not violating the Prime Directive, so we have to try and offer them both assistance in any way that we cane."

"So," Deanna began slowly as she leaned forward towards the conference table, "What are we going to do?"

Riker sighed and then replied, "We're going to help them. Besides, there is always the possibility that they both might be prepared to help us in return."

"Yes," Crusher wondered, "They  _could_ help us to find the captain and Data and Ensign Monroe."

"Exactly," Riker nodded. "But," he began again, "How are we going to help them?"

"We'll have to beam them aboard. You still do have the coordinates for the message don't you?" Riker asked Geordi.

The chief engineer nodded, replying, "We certainly do, sir."

Chief O'Brien looked up in both amazement and concern as he watched two shady and vague figures starting to materialize on the  _Starship Enterprise's_ transporter system. His fingers seemed to dance about the controls as he began to finalize the transportation.

Just at the moment when the transportation of the two mysterious alien figures had completed, Commander Riker entered the room and O'Brien acknowledged his presence, "Commander."

Riker looked over at the chief and then simply nodded in response. The two figures which were in front of him were in a very bad way. Commander Riker sighed and pressed his combadge and hailed the ship's chief medical officer, saying, "Doctor, we've got them."

Beverly acknowledged his statement, "Good, I'm ready in sickbay for them." I've managed to clear a few beds, thankfully."

Riker waited a short moment for the two hover gurneys to be brought over to him in the main transporter room by some ensigns who were lucky enough to not be victims of the radiation poisoning.

In sickbay, Doctor Beverly Crusher and Nurse Ogawa were finalizing the preparations for the two biobeds. Riker walked beside the two gurneys as the two ailing aliens were loaded, one by one, onto the two biobeds.

Crusher picked up her medical tricorder and began to scan one of the aliens and then the other. "What's your name?" She asked the white skinned man who was coughing who was clutching his stomach with a lot of force.

The white man tried to focus his eyes on the doctor's comforting face and finally, his attempts did pay off. "I'm… I'm… Jorel," he said quietly and his voice was much laboured.

Crusher sighed, being slightly unsure of what to do next. She gave him two ccs of morphenolog and watched the drug start to take effect. "This should make you feel a little better," she said softly.

"Do you know what's happened to you, Jorel?" She asked him as she began to inspect his pupils, which kept slipping back up into his head.

He blinked a few times and then answered her slowly, "I was shot."

"Shot?" She asked, confused a little. "With a phaser?"

He slowly and painfully nodded. Once again, he must have felt an immense pain in his torso region, because he clutched it once more tightly.

Crusher looked down at his chest and pulled off the top part of his clothing. The clothing itself was not harmed; there was not a single burn mark in sight. However, the state of his skin was much a different story. As Crusher carefully tore away the clothing, she could see how badly his white skin had been burned. His toned torso was now essentially in tatters. "I'm surprised you're still alive, to be honest," she said, while shaking her head in disbelief.

The young white patients tried to smile, but soon gave up. He then closed his eyes and, for one brief, yet horrifying moment, Crusher thought that she had lost him. However, she was soon consoled and calmed down once she took a look at the computer monitor above the biobed and saw that the patient was simply sleeping. She gave him a powerful yet essential aesthetic and then told Nurse Ogawa to prepare Jorel for the standard rehabilitation procedures.

Next, Crusher turned her attention to the other patient, who was lying on a biobed next to where Jorel was previously. He had very pale, green skin and Crusher could easily tell that he was very young.

The young man opened his white eyes and said to the doctor softly, "I'm—", he coughed loudly and violently, before continuing, "Kiras."

The chief medical officer smiled and then checked Kira's pulse rate. "And, I'm Doctor Crusher."

Kiras started to get up out of the biobed, but Crusher and a medical technician promptly and gently pushed him back onto the bed. "You're not going anywhere soon," she said gravelly.

Kiras sighed and subsequently placed his head back onto the rather hard and uncomfortable pillow of the biobed.

"Your breathing is very laboured and you've got three broken ribs," Crusher said sadly as she scanned him with her medical tricorder.

The light seemed to almost go out of Kiras' once mesmerising eyes at the sound of that.

Nurse Ogawa, having returned from her previous duty, walked over to Crusher. Crusher asked her for a neck brace and then Crusher carefully and expertly placed it around Kiras's neck. She didn't want to risk any more damage coming to this rather unfortunate young man. "What happened, Kiras?" Crusher asked as she took a blood sample from his arm.

"My friend and I… we were…" he coughed and then carried on with his explanation, "hiding from the Hypnite patrol and we found this building, which we stayed in for a few nights."

The doctor frowned and the analysed the computer readouts for Kiras' condition. "And then what happened?" She asked curiously.

"The roof collapsed," he said quietly. "There… there was a bomb, and it hit the building."

"What about your friend?" Crusher asked earnestly.

A single, solitary tear cascaded down from Kira's pale cheek and he instinctively brought up his uninjured arm to stop it from falling any further. "Attica is dead," he said simply as he closed his eyes and tried very desperately to stop any more tears from seeping out.

Guessing that this Attica that Kiras had mentioned was his friend, Crusher decided that it would be best for both her and for her patient if she didn't continue the topic any further. "I'm afraid you'll have to go to theatre," Crusher said finally, breaking the rather awkward silence.

Kiras sighed deeply and then nodded, showing the doctor that he understood what it was that she was saying. "Now?" He choked out the strained question.

Doctor Crusher nodded gravely, saying, "I'm afraid so."

Crusher caught sight of three very eager lab technicians walking over to her, so she gestured to the bed where Kiras was lying, at the moment, and the technicians nodded gratefully before taking Kiras out of the main area of sickbay, ready to be taken to the theatre room.

Jorel, the injured Hypnite, had had his injuries disappear in a much smaller time frame than Kiras. He was sat in the main area of sickbay, on a biobed, so that he could be kept under continuous observation by the medical crew.

When Kiras had returned from theatre, which had involved staunching the blood flow from his chest; reconstructing some of his sternum; fixing a puncture lung and reconnecting three of his ribs, there were no free biobeds for him to rest on. There was, however, one biobed free, and that was the one next to Jorel.

Nurse Ogawa helped Kiras to walk over to the biobed and when Jorel realised that Kiras was going to sit next to him, he couldn't help but scowl. Ogawa, however, ignored Jorel's rude glance and just comforted Kiras as he lay on the bed and tried to get comfortable.

Kiras, who was very young for a soldier, being only around nineteen earth years of age, was always curious. He had been curious since he could barely even walk or talk and now, his curiosity just kept growing. Everyone now and then, he would glance over at Jorel, who would just scoff or sniff a little and try to turn away from him.

At last, Kiras thought as though they should try and have some sort of conversation, at least. "Is your name Jorel?" He asked the Hypnite carefully.

Jorel turned around and looked over at Kiras. He replied quietly and to the point, "It is."

Kiras simply nodded in response to that. For a while longer, he didn't say anything else. However, he had too many questions swimming about in his mind. "Jorel?" He asked.

The Hypnite sighed heavily and then refocused his attention on Kiras. "What is it now?" He asked wearily and sounding a little fed up.

"I have asked my brother, but he doesn't have the answer to my question," Kiras said slowly and cautiously. It surprised him greatly that he didn't cry when he mentioned his brother.  _Maybe,_  he thought to himself,  _it is because I have had a brush with death myself that I now realize how precious life really is. I have to move on._

Once again, Jorel let out a heavy sigh and then said, "What do you want?"

Kiras swallowed heavily before replying, "Why  _are_ we at war? Why are  _my_  people fighting _your_  people?"

"I don't know," Jorel admitted slowly.

Just at that very moment, Beverly Crusher walked over to them. Walking with her were Commander William Riker and Counsellor Deanna Troi. They could easily tell from her facial expression that something had happened. However, neither Jorel nor Kiras were able to deduce what exactly had happened. She looked confused and annoyed and worried, as well as a whole load of other emotions. Finally, the doctor came to a stop and then said slowly, "Now, both of you have to listen very carefully to this."

Kiras and Jorel exchanged confused looks, ignoring their differences and then simply nodded to the doctor.

And so, Beverly continued with what she had to say to them. "Jorel, you are Hypnite, yes?" She asked.

Jorel nodded, feeling rather uneasy.

She then looked at Kiras and asked him, "And you are Thanatosian?"

Kiras stared at her, open-mouthed with confusion for a moment and then nodded slowly, just as Jorel had done previously.

"I'm afraid…" the doctor slowed her speech, in order to think of what to say properly and think about whether or not she was actually going to say the correct thing, "Either," she continued finally, "One of you is lying or something much more extraordinary has happened."

Jorel and Kiras couldn't think of anything to say, and so, they simply both remained silent.

"When you were both being examined," she said carefully and measuredly, "I took some gene samples."

Jorel felt an impulse to interject. "You had no right to conduct such a breach of privacy!" He stated loudly and abruptly.

Beverly, ignoring his impudence and misunderstanding, said to him simply, "It is Starfleet regulation to record the genetic sequences of all new, warp-capable species that we come across."

Hearing that, Jorel slumped back in the biobed and nodded slowly, noticing the reasoning behind her argument.

Beverly Crusher held out the PADD which had the genetic sequencing for both Hypnites and Thanatosians on screen. She showed it to Jorel and Kiras. They couldn't really make much sense of it as they were both soldiers, and not fully trained, or even partly trained at that, medical practitioners. She keyed a few things into her PADD and then the image on the screen changed to one of an image of two DNA ladders side by side. She pointed to the DNA strands and said to both Jorel and Kiras, "When I merge the two genetic strands together…" she paused to carry out that command, "They fit in with each other." And, sure enough, the two images merged perfectly. It was so perfectly aligned that it may well have just been one simply image.

Jorel was astounded. Kiras was astounded. "What… What are you saying?" Kiras asked the doctor slowly and cautiously.

"I think Hypnites and Thanatosians are really the same race," Crusher said.

Riker couldn't believe what he had heard, neither could Deanna. They simply stood beside the doctor, exchanging looks with each other once or twice. Finally, Deanna said to crusher slowly, "Are you sure?"

Beverly nodded. "Certainly," she said. "Just look at these results."

Deanna took the PADD from her and frowned at the results. She had had previous experience in the medical sector, being the ship's counsellor, yet still, she wasn't sure if what she was seeing really was true. She took one last look at the readings and then handed the PADD back over to Crusher. "It's true," she said, sighing. "But, how?"

"I don't know," Beverly said uncertainly. "However, due to the slightly more advanced genetic material of the Hypnites, I would say that a group of Hypnites left their home planet of Hypnos for some reason and then founded a new world."

Riker nodded and then inputted, "Which would be Thanatos, right?"

Beverly looked over at him and nodded her head. "Exactly."

"But, why would your people leave their home planet?" Riker asked Jorel and Kiras collectively.

Kiras just shrunk back into the biobed, feeling quite bewildered by this huge revelation that had just been made apparent to him. Jorel, however, stood up, taking his time as he did so, and said to Riker firmly, "When I was young, I was told tales of a great war millennia ago which happened on Hypnos."

Riker stepped forward and asked him, "Do you know what the cause of this war was?"

"Unlike this present conflict, I do know. My parents told me that it was because a group of our people had rebelled."

"But these  _people_ that you talk about were not Thanatosians?" Riker inquired.

Jorel nodded solemnly, saying, "I was not told that, no. But now, I realise that that was the case."

Riker nodded and mused over Jorel's answer. "And, then, because of this war, they left Hypnos and settled on this new planet?"

Jorel hadn't known any of this information before, obviously, so he nodded and said simply, "I guess so."

Satisfied with that response, to a certain degree, Riker nodded and thanked both Kiras and Jorel and then walked out of sickbay, with Beverly and Deanna.


	25. Seeing Through the Smoke

"What am I going to do, Deanna?" Riker asked her, in confidence. He looked around the purple space of the counsellor's office and pondered deeply.

Deanna thought carefully about that question before finally coming to a decision about what to say and then replied simply, "It is not me who has to make this decision."

Riker sighed and slumped back into the patient's chair. He glanced up at the greyish coloured ceiling, and then down at the lilac floor.

The counsellor frowned periodically before saying to him, "If I were you, Will, I would tell the presidents of both Hypnos and Thanatos."

"But how?" He asked her worriedly as he once again took a quick look around the room in the vain hope that it would somehow manage to calm his nerves.

She shook her head. "Just talk to them."

Riker didn't reply, but just sat staring back at her, in a state of deep thought.

"If they are both aware of this…" she paused and then found what she thought to be the correct word, "Situation, then there is a possibility that some sort of agreement could be met between the two of them."

"Well, all those two are going to agree on is more bloodshed," he commented sceptically.

She smiled at his sarcasm. "I meant a  _peaceful_ agreement," she said.

"You're right," he said to her. "You're always right."

Just as she saw that Riker was about to leave her office, Deanna began, speaking in an advisory tone of voice, "Will?"

He turned around and gazed at her. He was obviously worried about what it was that she was going to say next. "Yes, Deanna?" He asked, rather reproachfully.

"Hail the two presidents now," she decided firmly as she studied his facial expression deeply.

Riker nodded dutifully and then replied with a smile, "I will."

****

All of a sudden, a loud chirping sound became apparent to the both of them. Gina didn't have a clue about what it was, but Markeil knew. He walked over to the direction which the sound was originating from and pressed the communications panel. He spoke into it firmly, after quickly gathering his bearings, "I understand, yes." He was just about to close off the transmission, but he was stopped from doing so when he heard a yell coming from the other side of the transmission. "This is vitally important, general!"

Markeil nodded his solemnly and, although actually unaware of it, shuffled his feet a little. He spoke firmly into the comm panel. "I understand. I will be there. Just give me one moment."

"You cannot have 'one moment', your presence is needed now," the authoritative sounding voice said sternly.

Markeil sighed heavily, but tried not to sigh so that his breath was actually directed into the comm panel. If he had, then the consequences would be dire. Markeil did not reply straight away, instead, he looked over to Gina. He saw that she was walking over to him. She stopped and regarded him.

Markeil looked at her and then added, speaking into the comm panel, "I would like for Gina Monroe to accompany me."

The voice was confused. "Who?" It asked curiously.

"My…" he cleared his throat, before adding, "Comfort woman."

The voice on the other side chuckled briefly. "You should have said so in the first place."

For some reason, which she didn't know why, Gina found herself to be smiling briefly at Markeil. She gathered that she was grateful for the fact that he called her by her name and not by the petty and degrading label of comfort woman.

Markel saw her smile at him and felt a whoosh of instant relief fly past him. He smiled too. "We are leaving now," he said into the comm panel.

The man on the other side of the comm panel laughed again. It was not a pleasant laugh. "I did not agree to your bringing her."

"I…" Markeil broke off.

Once again, the voice laughed slyly and decided, "I did not say you couldn't either."

Markeil allowed a slight smile to creep across his face and he waited for the line to go dead, which it very soon dead. He then said, as he looked deeply at Gina, "We are going to see the president."

She nodded gravely and replied, "I know. I recognised his voice."

Markeil smiled at her. "Very clever." It wasn't in the slightest bit sarcastic. He meant every word of it.

"Why do we have to see him?" Gina asked. She still wasn't particularly fond of Markeil, not to mention this president, so she didn't really feel like spending time with both of them right at the moment. Nevertheless, she wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to the  _Enterprise._ She wanted to know that Data and Captain Picard were both alive and well. And so, she deduced, it would be best if she tried to stay on friendly terms with Markeil and Jevail.

It had taken them four hours, but they had finally reached the cabinet office of the president's building. Gina wasn't really sure about what she should call it. It was basically falling apart. There had obviously been quite a few bombs falling on that place. It looked like Dracula's castle. Or, some sort of monastery. Whatever it was and whatever it looked like, she knew she didn't particularly want to spend that much time there.

Gina and Markeil were led down a large, grey walled corridor. The walk seemed to them to be going on forever. Promptly, however, the tall guard who had been walking behind them previously, moved his position so he was now walking at a steady pace with them. They came to a door and the guard entered some sort of code. The door beeped, after a retina scan had been conducted on both Markeil and Gina, and then slid open. There was a desk in the centre and behind it, sat the man who was known as Jevail.

Once Markeil had walked into the room, he planted his fist firmly on his head. Jevail nodded and then cast his gaze over to Gina. He frowned.

Gina saw what Markeil had done to signify his respect, and so, she did the same. Jevail smiled, obviously pleased with her initiative.

Jevail stood up from his desk and walked over to the pair. He stared briefly at Markeil, but then grew bored, apparently. He had seen Markeil thousands of times before, he didn't want to see him again. He then looked over at Gina. "I recognise you," he stated the obvious as he stared her in the face.

She felt a little perturbed by his proximity to her but replied quickly, "I am from the  _Enterprise."_

"I know," he said, sounding a little defensive.

She smiled inside.

"Now," he said as he sat down in his chair and gestured to Gina and Markeil to sit in the two chairs opposite his, on the other side of the desk. They sat down. "To business," he concluded.

Gina looked behind her and saw two armed guards standing with their legs a bit too far apart and their weapons poised to fire at any moment.

"I presume  _you_ know why you are here," Jevail spoke as looked at Markeil.

Markeil nodded slowly. "I do, yes."

"But you… young lady, do not," Jevail added as he regarded Gina.

Gina couldn't help but raise a slight eyebrow at hearing that. "I don't, know, but I'm sure I could take a pretty good guess."

Jevail grinned unpleasantly at her. "If you're so sure, then, perhaps you would like to do so?" He prompted her.

She shrugged her shoulders and crossed her slender legs. "No, actually, I have something else to say to you."

"Go on," Jevail said with mock horror.

Markeil sighed quietly and braced himself for what it was that Gina was now going to go ahead and say.

Gina composed herself quickly. "I know you know this war is ridiculous. There can't be a conflict without any good reason. You're people are  _dying!"_

Jevail nodded and the smiled slightly.

"So, you think this is funny?" She demanded furiously.

"You ought to watch your tongue, young lady," he said.

She shook her head and said firmly, "Why should I? You don't  _own_ me. You don't  _govern_ me. You  _can't_ tell me what to do."

"Can't I?"

She knew she shouldn't, but she didn't care. "No, you can't. There is nothing more you can do to me. You have imprisoned my captain. My  _captain!_ And, Data. Why would you do anything bad to  _him,_ of  _all_ people?!"

"I'm… I'm sorry?" Gina said, stumbling with her words.

The president continued, "Why choose Commander Data?" He uttered the word 'commander' with a measurable level of disbelief and almost some sort of disgust.

"Because…" she stopped and then change what she was about to say. "Why does it matter?" She asked.

"Because I am interested," he replied casually. He grinned.

She sighed and said, "Very well." She knew, deep down, that she might as well answer his many questions, regardless of the topic at hand. "Data is kind and caring and… thoughtful. He looked after me when our shuttle crashed. He reassured me."

Jevail signalled her to continue.

So, Gina did just so. "I was injured as a result of the impact and… Data fixed my shoulder."

President Jevail smiled. It wasn't really a pleasant smile but it wasn't really a repellent one, either. "And, this is the only reason why?" He asked, intrigued.

Gina knew exactly what he had meant by that. And, understandably, she didn't really feel entirely comfortable about answering that. So, she didn't.

After the few moments of silence, Jevail broke it and said, "I understand, that was rude of me." Once again, he smiled rather broadly.

Gina changed the subject. "Jevail…" she corrected herself. "President, is there a chance of my people being released?" She asked him.

He saw the desperation on her beautiful face. "All in good time," he replied bluntly.

"No!" She yelled angrily. "I want the truth."

He sighed and formed a steeple out of his fingers as he stretched them on the large table which was in front of him. "As you wish. You can go free," he said.

"I can?" She echoed, unsure whether or not this man was being true to his word.

"You may, yes," Jevail replied. "I never lie."

She rolled her eyes as discreetly as she found to be possible. She looked over at Markeil, who was still sat beside her. He looked sad. In fact, he looked worse than sad. "Markeil?" She asked him.

He allowed his gaze to wander over to her. "What is it, Gina?" He asked, sounding rather weary.

"That's great news, isn't it?" She asked, her voice getting quite high-pitched.

He nodded slowly. "Yes, yes, it's great," he replied half-heartedly.

She frowned and said, "Markeil, I have to leave. I can't stay here."

He nodded again. "I know, I know."

Jevail, on the other side of the desk, had never been a particularly polite individual and he was staying true to his ways. He didn't move from his original position. Instead, he remained where he was, listening intently to what Gina and Markeil were talking about.

"I'm sorry…" Gina began slowly. She didn't know what to say, so she, rather naturally, just apologised. Even though, she had nothing to apologise for.

"No, don't apologise," he said sadly. "You have nothing whatsoever to be sorry for."

"I have to go," Gina said. "I have to help Picard and Data."

He shook his head. "You can't go," he said quietly.

"I have to."

"No."

"Markeil," she said softly. "I  _need_ to, and I  _want_ to."

"You do not  _want_ to stay here with  _me_?" He asked her, holding his gaze at her.

She pressed her hand to her forehead, thinking. "I don't know, Markeil," she finally muttered. "I want to stay with you, but I also want to return to my ship."

"Please, don't."

Gina couldn't think of anything else to say. So, she remained silent.

He put his hand on her cheek and out of the corner of her eye, Gina could see that Jevail was rather enjoying this little spectacle. "It's no use, Markeil. I can't stay with you," Gina said.

"Why?" He asked her, sounding desperate.

"I would like to, Markeil. I would. But, I need to help Data. I need to help my captain."

Markeil opened his mouth, as if he were about to say something. However, he couldn't seem to think of anything to say, so he remained quiet.

Just at that very moment, the door to the President's office, in which they were, slid open. Jevail was outraged by this apparent act of rudeness and insolence and so, he charged over to the man who had opened the door and shouted at him angrily, "What on earth do you think you are doing? Have some courtesy!"

The many blinked a few times and then managed to reply, "President, Jevail, I am your new personal assistant."

"So?" Jevail asked him impatiently.

"I was told to tell you that a Federation vessel has been attempting to make contact with our strategic command," the assistant said blandly.

Jevail's brow wrinkled. He was confused. "What do they want now?" He questioned him, sounding very irritated and annoyed.

The assistant replied simply, "They have made an urgent discovery and wish to make you aware of it. They have already told the President of Thanatos."

"Myklos," Jevail muttered that name bitterly and with much contempt. "

The young assistant ignored that remark and, instead, continued with what it was that he was saying, "I believe it is very urgent."

"I'll be the judge of that," Jevail said, sounding rather bitter as he did so.

The assistant then said quietly, "They wish to contact you now."

"Now?" Jevail echoed, annoyed with what he had just learnt.

The man nodded. "Yes. That is what they say."

Jevail sighed and then said, "Very well. Patch them through." He glared at the assistant, who quickly complied with his order.

After waiting a few moments, the large computer monitor which was positioned atop the desk of the president, flickered on. The voice was unmistakeable, but the image was still in the process of loading. However, after a short while, the image began to appear and Jevail's suspicions were quickly confirmed when he saw Commander Riker standing before him on the screen.

Riker's jaw was open so wide that it could have been touching the floor. He was staring at Gina Monroe. "Ensign Monroe!" He yelled ecstatically.

Gina stood up and walked over to the computer screen. "Commander!" She said gleefully.

"Ensign," Riker said, gathering his thoughts, "Are you well?"

She nodded and smiled. "I am, yes. But, I don't know where the captain or Dara are." She looked down at the floor, glumly.

"They're here," Riker said softly.

"What?!" She asked, confused deeply. "How?"

Jevail stepped in and replied to her simply, "I had them transported back to your ship."

She was too stunned to say any more.

Satisfied that Gina was all right, Riker began slowly and steadily, "President Jevail, we have some extremely important information to tell you."

Jevail scoffed. "I doubt that," he said rudely.

"Well, you shouldn't," Riker said bluntly. "President Myklos is already aware of what we are about to tell you."

Jevail sighed and then nodded, signalling for Riker to continue.

On the screen, Riker gestured to Doctor Beverly Crusher. She walked forward and then began to explain the findings, "I have conducted numerous blood tests on a Hypnite ad Thanatosian male and they both seem to…" she quietened a bit until she actually grew silent. Then, she noticed Riker looking at her oddly, so she continued, adding, "Have the same DNA."

Jevail was stunned, as was everyone else in the room. The guards, Gina, and Markeil. They could all not believe what it was that they were hearing. Finally, Jevail thought of something to say in response and he said slowly, unsure of himself for the first time ever in his life, "How is that possible?"

"I think that your two species must have once been one," Beverly Crusher said quietly. "That is what the Hypnite and the Thanatosian under our care have revealed to us. They say that a group of Hypnites left your planet and settled on Thanatos."

"But… that must have been years ago!" The assistant blurted out, forgetting his place.

Jevail was, understandably, too wrapped up in this whole incident to even discipline the young man.

"It was," Beverly Crusher admitted. "Tens of thousands of years ago," she replied sounding rather matter-of-fact with it.

"What… what now?" Jevail managed to ask.

Riker stepped forward and signalled to Beverly Crusher that he would reply this time. "Your two people, the Hypnites and the Thanatosians, I mean, will continue the peace conference," he said, sounding quite hopeful with that prospect.

"Since when do I take orders from you?" Jevail uttered stubbornly.

Riker managed to smile slightly. "You don't. However, since your two planets are now under Federation influence, I suggest that you listen."

Jevail sighed heavily and loudly. He hung up and said to Markeil, "Did you have any idea—"

Markeil cut him off promptly, saying, "No, of course I didn't."

Gina was stunned. However, she also realised that she was somehow thankful. "Markeil, don't you understand? This gives you a chance to form an alliance with the people Thanatos? This war can finally end!" Her voice, as she spoke these words, was, understandably, quite full of glee. She grinned. She forgot about what it would do to Markeil.

Markeil nodded slowly. He was still trying to absorb all of this life-changing information. "I presume so," he said sadly. He tried to let his emotions not show through.

Jevail frowned heavily, making deep creases in his forehead. He looked over at Markeil.


	26. Goodbyes Are Never Good

"There is a message for you," a guard said to Gina, once she had left the President's office. She had left alone; expected to return to Markeil's quarters.

She regarded him quizzically. She wondered what the message could be. "Yes?" She asked him politely. "What is it?"

"Your ship, the, uh…" he faded out, obviously forgetting the name of the ship. After all, he was a guard, not a messenger.

" _Enterprise_ ," Gina finished off for him.

He smiled nervously and composed himself, before finally continuing with what he was saying. "They say that you can leave soon."

She raised an eyebrow at that. She thought she could go back to the  _Enterprise_ now. "What do you mean?"

"That is all the information I was given. You will be expected within a few days," the guard added.

"Why can I not go  _now_?" She asked him, confused. Then, she figured it out. There was a war on, more or less. She could not simply leave. Although Jevail did know the truth about the Hypnites' and Thanatosians' common ancestor, he hadn't thought to tell the people; the civilians. All sorts of official channels had to be passed before anything could happen. So, Gina shook her head. "No worries," she informed the guard.

He turned on his heel and walked away.

"Thank you," Gina called to him.

She continued to walk back to Markeil's quarters. She couldn't help turning her nose up at the pathetic sights which she could see out of the windows. Even the windows themselves were so poorly kept, she could barely see anything. She couldn't even bare to think of what it would be like down there at night.  _All this technology, and they can't even maintain safety and electricity for their people_ , Gina thought to herself in dismay. It was very similar to Earth in the twenty-first century, plagued by war, poverty, corruption and civil unrest.

She snapped out of that negative thinking mode and reminded herself that she would soon be able to return to the  _Enterprise_.

At last, she reached Markeil's quarters. The lights were on and the red sun was strong, surprisingly, strong. She went into the bathroom and studied herself. She looked different, she thought to herself. Though, she wasn't really sure what it was that made her look different. Even if her appearance didn't change that much, she knew that she felt different.  _Very_ different. She combed her hair and frowned heavily.

She hadn't heard it but the door had opened. She left the bathroom and was surprised to find Markeil hovering in the doorway.

"Markeil?" She said, surprised.

He seemed to be just as surprised as she was. "I was not expecting you," he said nonchalantly, avoiding eye-contact with her.

She raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I only came here to see why someone was in my quarters," he replied, with the same flat tone of voice.

"Who else could it have been but me?" She wondered aloud.

He shrugged. "I thought you had left."

"I wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye," she said warmly.

That seemed to cheer him up a little. "So, you will be going now, I take it?" He asked her, hoping that the answer would be no.

She shook her head. "One of your guards told me that I couldn't return to the  _Enterprise_ yet."

"Whatever for?" He asked her. He was pleased, though confused.

"Just to make things easier for your people and the Thanatosians, I think. Maybe I'm some sort of intermediary," she suggested.

He nodded, considering her thoughts. They seemed logical. "Anyway," he said, pointing to the door. "I'll leave you to it. You probably will need to gather up your things."

She smiled at him. "No, don't go."

He returned the smile, though it was a slightly nervous smile. "What will you be bringing back to your ship?" He said, uncomfortable with the silence.

Gina shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. There isn't much, really."

He remembered and felt a little guilty. Her tricorder, phaser and combadge had all been confiscated. She was allowed to keep her uniform. President Jevail said that it was to remind her that she was an enemy to them. "I will miss you," he blurted out.

"I am not going yet," she comforted him. "I can't leave for at least another few days."

That gave him some sort of consolation, but he knew that the time would quickly be over. He sighed quietly. "That's something, I suppose," he wondered aloud.

She smiled and went over to him. "Do you have anything that you need to do today?"

He was silent for a while, considering. "Paperwork," he said. "It can wait."

"No, you shouldn't," she said firmly. "I've already gotten you into trouble. I am a distraction. I'll soon be out of your hair."

"Distractions are not always bad," he said logically. He tucked a tendril of her hair behind her ear. He looked at her. She knew that he was not happy with her leaving. She could see it in his eyes. They were dim; dimmer than the moon. There was no light behind them and no flecks of sparkles scattered around on them, either. They were dull. A plain blue colour. They now no longer seemed to be special or intriguing.

"I'm sorry I have to go," she muttered, her chin still resting in his hand.

He cocked his head to one side. "It is not your fault. You belong in  _Starfleet_. You're too pretty to have to live in this abominable place."

She smiled. "It won't always be like this," she said comfortingly.

He nodded, hoping that she was right. He kissed her cheek and held her close.


	27. I Love You

Gina Monroe sighed. She composed herself and then pressed the comm-panel on the side of the door. She cleared her throat. "Markeil?" she called tentatively; her voice was barley her own. It was fearful, regretful. She knew what was going to happen. What had to happen.

On the other side of the door, Markeil was staring out of the window in his quarters. The relief efforts on the once majestic planet were finally beginning to happen and the rubble was being cleared away at astonishing speed.

Pfft... he moaned, rolling his eyes. Another contractor or official, another person wanting to talk to him. And talking was the last thing that he wanted to do. But sound of his name being called. Of her calling his name... it woke him up and removed him from his reverie. At once, hope rushing through his body, he ordered that the computer open the door.

Once it had slid open, Gina stepped in. She tentatively looked around the room until her gaze met Markeil. Her heart leapt a little, her brain fought hard to comprehend all of the emotions that she was feeling. She knew that she had to leave him, but the bond would not be broken. She started over to him and then stopped. She was about to turn on her heel and rush out, and then she heard his voice.

"Gina," he muttered. "I wasn't expecting you." His hands were draped behind his back, his posture composed; all she saw was rigidness.

"I…" she stopped to think. "I left some of my things. My combadge and such." Lies would not do; they could hardly be a substitute for the truth.

He studied her from head to toe. She had been supplied with a new Starfleet uniform, but there was no combadge. In her hands, she was holding the clothes which Markeil had lent her. She proffered them to him.

He regarded them in silence for a short while, distracted by her innocent beauty. "Why are you handing them over to me?" he asked her, raising his eyebrow.

She looked at him. "They are not mine. You could probably sell them or throw them away or, whatever," she replied. "I don't need them." And that sentence stung her lips when she said it.

He took the clothes. "You would rather wear that?" he said of the uniform.

She looked down at herself. It felt good wearing the uniform again; she hadn't seen one in such a long time. "What's wrong with it?" She teased.

"You know that I am not serious. I care not what you wear." He smiled warmly, wistfully. "You could wear anything and it would impress me." He turned away and picked a small metal object off the table. He gave it to her. "Here," he said quietly.

She took it and smiled happily when she realised that it was her combadge. She fastened it to her uniform shirt. "What are you going to do now?" she asked delicately, stepping over a little closer to him, her hand on his arm.

His eyes travelled down as he caught sight of her hand. He smiled sadly; it was so small and delicate. He took it in his and kissed it. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that you can't govern a prison complex now. There's no need for it. Are you not going to get a job or something?" she quizzed him, concerned for his well-being.

"I have not really put that much thought into it," he muttered, his gaze wandering off.

"You know," she began excitedly. "Hypnos and Thanatos are likely to be accepted into the Federation. You could work for Starfleet."

"Starfleet?" he echoed, immediately skeptical. "I don't really think I am Starfleet material," he admitted.

"No, no," she argued. "You'd be a great officer." Her eyes smiled with her mouth, and she found herself focusing on his lips.

He smiled. After a few minutes of silence, he asked her, "Should you not be getting back to that captain of yours, and Data?" His throat grew a little dry, but he cleared his throat and tried to disguise his uneasiness.

"I've time enough," she said, waving off his worry. "Markeil," she said, her tone suddenly calmer and more immediate. "I need you to know that I'm very sorry that things haven't worked out between us."

He could do little but smile and shrug off her concern. "You've nothing to be sorry for. If anything, it's me that-"

But she cut him off. "Shh," she said softly, shaking her head slowly.

He nodded sadly and looked out of the window. The room was still quite gloomy, but the star's light was just about managing to creep in, and with it, shadows were starting to dance upon the walls and floor.

"Do you think you'll go to the conference on Chaorn?" Gina asked him after a period of unproductive silence.

He looked at her and stared in silence for a moment. "Possibly. I don't know. I do not really feel like doing much, to be honest."

"We'll see each other again soon, I am sure," she told him, but her words were fragmented and uncertain; it was the best that she could do,a nd she said it as much to satisfy herself as to satisfy him. "Besides, you are still a General, you have a lot of opportunities. I suppose, even if your own government does not recruit you, there are other opportunities."

"I am sorry for disturbing whatever relationship you and that android might have had," he found himself saying. The words were quiet and had little meaning, but there was enough depth to them for Gina to get defensive.

She cut him off. "I was happy with you. Data, I…" she stopped and thought. She didn't even know what she and Data actually were. "God, I don't know. We were friends, I know that. He taught me so much, and, maybe, I taught him a thing or two." She went silent again and hoped that Markeil would fill in the uncomfortable quietness. "I cared for Data, but, perhaps, that's just what happens when you spend so much time with one person. I don't really know." She breathed and frowned at her explanation.

"Don't deny your feelings for each other, because, if you think it will spare mine, then—"

She interrupted him, again. "I'm not denying anything, Markeil," she said calmly. "Data and I were close… We still are. I don't think it was anything more. I wanted to believe that maybe I could teach him how to be more human, but, I know that cannot really happen."

His head was in his hands as he considered it, and he could feel her hand on his shoulder, stroking it gently. "Gina," he finally said. "I was wrong to imprison them, and I apologise."

She couldn't even bear to think of the things that Picard and Data may have been subjected to in the jail cells, so she blocked those images from her mind. "That was Jevail, Markeil," she replied. "I know you didn't have any control over it."

He cast his gaze over at a computer console. "I shall not prevent you from leaving."

She shook her head. "No, I won't go just yet. I'll stay for a little while longer." She examined his white jaw; it had stiffened. It looked tenser than she had ever seen it. The star's light danced in his eyes, making it glitter. She knew that it was a trick of the eye; he was upset. She stood beside him and joined him in looking out of the window. She wished he would look at her.

The sky was gradually beginning to get darker and darker. The light was slowly fading. Construction and refurbishment of the bombed and damaged buildings was now well under way, with workers working on into the depths of the night. The President's building had been demolished. Whether this was a statement of freedom, a signal for a new beginning or simply as a safety precaution, Gina didn't know. The skyline was pretty much dead. There were few lights on the horizon, except, of course, for the millions of little stars. Once, Gina had pointed out which star was the Earth's sun. He had called it small; too small to feed a nation such as humanity.

She reached for his hand and held it. It was cold. He flinched a little, but welcomed it.

"Gina, go if you want," he said.

She shook her head. "No, I don't. You're upset, I know you are."

He composed himself and tilted his chin up strongly. "I am not upset," he countered.

"You are," she decided. "I don't want to leave you if you are upset."

He sighed and looked down at her. She turned her head to face him. His jaw was still very tight and his black hair was a little matted. She could make out even the smallest of details now that the evening sunlight was at full glare. His eyes looked duller. Their electric hue had been washed in his despair and it pained her to know that she had caused that. His skin, though, was still as smooth as porcelain and his smile was warm.

He hesitated and put his arm around her shoulder. He felt her shudder a little at the touch, but she caught his hand and held it.

"Markeil," she began slowly. She didn't want to sound loveless and harsh, but she couldn't really think of a kinder way to put it. "I forgive you for everything that has happened. But, I cannot choose between you and... and Starfleet. I have a duty."

"I don't want you choose, Gina," he corrected her. "I told you I love you and then you were beamed right up to that Starship. I didn't even get to hear your response."

"I..." she began to speak, btu the words had not formed a sentence in her head. Frustration threatened to overcome her senses. "Markeil," she muttered softly as she reached up to stroke his pale cheek. "Please, you must understand that you mean so very much to me. I don't know why I can't say I love you, but I can't." Her eyes searched his. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said simply. "I am glad to have met you. You've opened my eyes to new things. You made me happy, happier than I've ever been. The Hypnites and the Thanatosians may finally be able to see eye to eye. You humans had done this centuries ago, why have we only done this now?"

"But, promise me, Markeil, that you will do somethig when I've gone."

Her smile was painful; the hope was in her eyes and in her face, and he had to match it. "There is nothing left for me here, and I would not fit in in Starfleet. But I want you to be the first person to know that I've been shortlisted for a position in the Hypite Senate."

"That's great," she said, happy for him. "Well, when you've got the position, be sure to drop me a line."

"That is reason enough to hope to get the position," he said, a hint of mischief in his eyes.

The commpanel beeped.

A young messenger entered. "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but the Starfleet people are asking for their officer," he announced, casting his gaze over to Gina.

"Thank you. Tell them that Ensign Monroe will be joing them shortly," Markeil said to the messenger, before sending him on his way. The door slid closed. "You ought to go," he reminded Gina.

He blinked and forced himself to hold back the tears. He just about succeeded. Cold air from the open window in front of them blew at them. It whooshed through him and he shivered. "Gina," he said. "Take care."

She regarded him and realised that she really did have to leave him. She took his hand back and said, "I'm sorry. Really."

He nodded glumly. The light outlined her features, as it did his. The slowly fading glare of the evening sun emphasised his jaw. It had stayed firm throughout their entire meeting. Markeil couldn't resist the compulsion to brush the hair away from her eyes. His once bright blue eyes were still dark and gloomy. His entire face seemed duller than usual. His skin was so pale it looked like a ghostly figure. His countenance was still despairing, and, every time she looked at him, Gina was reminded of how she had caused his unhappiness. She stood on her toes, despite her brain telling her not to, and kissed him on the lips; he held her, putting his hand around her waist. She broke the kiss after some time and stepped away.

She went over to the door, and heard Markeil's voice fade as the door slid open. "I love you," he said quietly.

And, as much as he wanted to agree, she could not.


	28. Epilogue

_C_ _aptain's log, star date 48323.5. The peace conference on Charon has finally begun, two months after its original expected date. The conference was attended by myself as well as other representatives of the Federation. Presidents Jevail and Myklos have both, surprisingly, stepped down from their posts and the two planets are now being treated as one power, ruled by a democratic system. They have asked to join the Federation and their application is now being seriously considered. I, Ensign Monroe and Commander Data had been safely transported to the_ Enterprise  _and are now all attending to our usual duties._

"End log entry," Captain Jean-Luc Picard ordered his computer as he settled down in his quarters to read his book. It was the copy of  _Moby Dick_ which he had received when he was spending time in prison.

Data had been painting when the interruption came. He placed the brush down delicately in the pallet, being very careful not to let the handle fall into the paint. He stood up and then said loudly, "Come."

The doors to his quarters slid open and Gina Monroe walked in. She noticed that Data was painting, so she said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were busy."

She was about to leave, when Data said to her, "You are not disturbing me." His face displayed that tiny smile.

She smiled sweetly and walked over to him. "What are you painting?" She asked him.

"I am attempting to reproduce the system in which Thanatos and Hypnos are located," he replied simply. "In order to replicate it in exactitude, I have consulted several astrometrics diagrams..."

"You can make something so beautiful sound so scientific," she said, laughing. She looked at the picture. It wasn't quite finished yet, but she could tell that it would be very good once it was. There were four spheres in the painting: Hypnos, Thanatos, Charon and the star. They were lain upon the dazzling black velvet blanket which was space.


End file.
